Chapter 9
After the flashback, Spud felt dazed. He turned and start to puke into the trash-bin next to the sales desk. It felt like the whole room was spining around. Spud just sat there for a couple of minutes before it went better again. That was maybe the longest flashback of all he had until now. But now it made sense.
"The intruders... they caused the crash... but how... and how they came to the past?" Spud asked himself. He took a tissue and dried his face. „How...? How...?"
Spud walked around and looked on all the prepared boxes in the room. On the desk was a heap of papers. Next to it was Lao Shi's diary they read yesterday to find out that they never knew about the magical artefacts in the Landmark jet. Spud opened the book and start to read. The last entry was from the day before the crash:
Magical necklage of a witch stolen. Thief catched. Helpers injured. Closing the reports for vacation.
Spud searched the book further and searched for something. Something that helped him. Help him to understand why the intruders came here. What they want here?
Meanwhile...
In the Carters house, Trixie's mom entered the kitchen and start to prepare the breakfast when she opened the cupboard and found the magical-purse inside.
"Huh... what is that?" she asked herself and pulled it out of the board.
In that moment Trixie came into the kitchen. „MOM... TAKE THAT AWAY!"
Her mother screamed shortly and let the purse drop. „Trixie... why do you scream? You scared me!" she said mad.
"I'm sorry!" Trixie said and looked inside to keep sure that the metal was still in there.
"Is that yours?"
"Ehm... yes! Mom... I have a... date... I meet with a old friend... I have to go without breakfast... bye!" Trixie stammered and left the kitchen.
"But, Trixie..." her mother said before she could hear that the door was smashed close...
Outside... Trixie pulled out her mobile to call Spud. But he called her first...
"Spud? Where are you?" she asked.
"I'll tell you later. We meet at the airport!" Spud said. It sound like he was running.
"What? We don't go there together?"
"No... me meet there! Trust me!" Spud said and hang off.
Trixie start to feel strange. Worried she looked around. It was foggy. And it was quiet. Too quiet for New York. In fear she pressed the purse on her and ran down the stairs of the next subway-station...
Spud meanwhile arrived a subway-station, too. When he stood on the platform he looked on the other people. The station was full of people. Spud looked on eyerone like he was the enemy. A woman next to him was confused. The man on the other side became mad... „Do you have a problem?" he asked with a very deep voice.
Spud just smiled and was relieved when he saw that the subway was comming. The scratching of the brakes became louder and louder when the people prepared to enter the train. But than all people turned in shock when Spud let out an horrible scream after someone pushed him from behind and he fell forward. Spud land on his chest,... his head and his shoulders hanging over the rails. His arms also hang over the edge of the platform. People screamed, and the brakes of the train became louder when the driver saw the boy hanging over the rails. In fear Spud turned his head right, seeing the light of the train heading towards him.
Spud closed his eyes and prepared for the impact before someone pulled on his leg and pulled him back over the edge and on the platform in the last second. Spud opened his eyes and realised that he was alive. The train stopped and people stood all over around him. The people where shocked. Spud looked into the pale faces of shocked people. Than he stood up and looked on the horrified people.
"Who was that? Who just tried to kill me?" he asked angrily.
"Are you okay? What do you mean with that?" a woman asked.
"Someone just pushed me from behind!" Spud shouted. In that moment two security-guards arrived.
"Hey... what's going on here?" one of them asked.
"Arrest them!" Spud said and point with his finger on the people around him. „One of them tried to push me on the rails."
"We just safed you from the train!" a african-american man said mad. „Why do you blame us?"
For Spud the people around him where all suspect. He start to feel like in a thriller-movie.
"I think the best is when you calm down and come with us!" the other guard said and hold Spud's arm.
"GET OFF OF ME!" Spud shouted hystericly and pulled the man's hand away before he ran away.
"HEY... STOP..." the guards shouted when Spud ran upstairs and out of the station. On the street he looked around. The guards followed him. Than Spud ran on the street. Cars honked and braked to not to hit the teenager who ran over the street and opened the back-door of a parked taxi. Spud laid down and hid. Outside the guards realised that they lost him and walked back into the station.
"You again...?" a male voice asked. In shock Spud looked up to see the taxi-driver again who got the 600 $ first and who gave them the free ride to the airport. „Are you okay?"
"Listen... we gave you 606 $. Can you get me to JFK again. Please? It's an emergency!" Spud said and the driver agreed.
"You are totally pale? You're sick?" the driver asked.
"No... I... just... stressed." Spud answered and realised that someone just tried to kill him. He breathed fast. His head and his chest hurt horribly. He knew that he was injured...
"You're looking not okay. May I get you to an doctor?" the driver asked with his strong accent.
"No, to the airport! NOW!" Spud said annoyed.
"Okay,... for a teenager you are too stressed." the driver said. Than he said something in his own language. „I came to America because everyone said that the people here are... what is the word... relaxed."
"This is New York!" Spud answered. „Here is all hecticaly. Where do you come from?"
"Albania!" the driver answered. „I'm here for three years now with my wife and my two daughters. And in this three years... you and the black girl are the strangest people I met."
"Falemnderit!" Spud said.
The taxi drove over the Brooklyn-Bridge in that moment. Spud start to think about the events of the last days and slowly realised that he was the protagonist in a psycho-horror-thiller...
"Airline?" the driver asked.
"Ehm... Oceanic! Departures!" Spud said and saw that they arrived. A jet flew over them and raised up into the cloudy sky. Hundreds of people walked accross the building the taxi stopped and Spud jumped out. "Hey,... wait... there is only one free ride... for this one you have to pay!"
But Spud was already in the terminal and looked around. The terminal was filled with a lot of people, waiting, walking, running and leaving. Spud looked around and watched the people. What if the person who just tried to kill him was here? What if it was one of them? Spud breathed fast and felt dazed again. It seemed like the people around him became slower and moved in time-elapse. He could hear his heart beat faster and faster before his mobile rang.
In shock Spud searched his mobile and finally found it. On the display he could see that he got a call from home.
"Hello?" he said afraid.
"Arthur? Arthur... where are you?" he heard his angry mother. "Where have you gone? We were worried!"
"I... I'm sorry. There was something I had to look for... Mom... You know the Carters? Trixie's parents! May we meet you there... there's something we have to discuss together." Spud said and slowly calmed down. "We will come there!"
"Arthur... I want that you tell me the truth now! I know that something is not going right here and I want to now what! Now!" his mother said mad.
"No... not on the phone! We meet there where I said. Bye!" he said.
"ARTHUR! Don't hang off... I warn you..." he heard his mother shouting but he pressed the red button and the call was interrupt.
Just in that moment he looked up and saw Trixie entering the terminal... only a second later he saw the vampire from the crash-site walking with a big brown envelope right in his direction...
Spud was so relieved to see her that he hugged her when she arrived and broke out in tears. Trixie was confused, the vamipre too. Than Trixie could see that Spud was injured.
"What happend?" she asked.
Spud took a deep breath and start to tell what happend in the subway. Trixie was shocked and hugged him again. Spud roared in pain because his chest was injured. In shock Trixie let of off him and turned to the vampire.
"Someone was yesterday in our apartment and told my mom that they found the black-boxes. Is that true?" she asked him.
"No... we haven't found anything. And even if we found it yesterday... it needs days before they are analised in Washington." he explained „But I got here something for you that might be interesting for you. It was really difficult to smuggle it away from the crash-scene. But when I saw it I had to show it to you."
They walked to a bench in a quieter area of the terminal and the vampire opened the envelope and pulled out two small metal sticks.
"This are the steel pins that connect the engine with the engine-holders on the wings. As you can see... both are cut threw..."
Trixie put the pins and looked on it. The maybe two inch wide metal-sticks was cut like a knife that cut threw a piece of butter. For them it was one more evidence that the engine not just explode... it was really cut off. In that moment Henry Rogers arrived. He weared his uniform and was totally pale in his face.
"Oh my god... you are okay. Good."
"You know about that what happend in the subway?" Spud asked confused.
"No... I mean... wait... what happend in the subway?" he asked and Spud repeat the whole story. "Oh my god... would you follow me, please?"
"What for?"
"Just trust me... yesterday I found out that you have something you shouldn't have. We go to the restroom..." he said and carefully Spud followed the wizard to the restrooms.
In the mens restroom Henry looked around to keep sure that they where alone in the restroom. It was quiet. Henry placed his trolley on a wall and put off his uniform-jacket. Spud start to feel afraid.
"What are you doing?" he asked scared.
"You don't have to be afraid. But I want that you know that I'm really sorry for that what I have to do now." Henry said and with a wink of his hand the door was locked. In the next moment he lift his hand and Spud was lift from his feets and start to fly threw the room. He start to scream in panic. But outside nobody could hear him.
"SHHH... Calm down... It will be painfull but you have to calm down!" Henry shouted and with another wink with his hands Spud slowly fly over the sinks.
Henry opened the faucet of one of them and put his hand on Spud's head. The next thing Spud knew was that he felt a horrible pain in his head. He screamed in pain and panic and tried to relieve from Henry's spell but he couldn't move. Instead he felt like something was pressing from inside his head and tried to come outside. The mirror over the sinks start to vibrate and the lights start to flimmer. Spud shut his eyes and continued screaming when he felt that something stinched out of his head and he was dropped on the sink-table. In fear Spud jumped off of the table and turned to Henry. His hands where full of blood as like the sink was full of blood. Spud was going to start to scream before he saw that what just came out of his head.
A maybe 3 inch long, brown and pink worm jumped out of the sink and jumped around in the room. Spud was scared and slowly realised that the worm was heading towards him...
He screamed again. Henry lift his hand and screamed two strange words... in that moment, the worm explode right in front of Spud's face...
Both breathed fast... the lights went off for a moment and switched on again... Blood dropped from Henry's hand and he start to wash himself. Spud was still shocked... There was a worm in his head... A WORM! Spud hold his head. He had a bloody wound on his back of head. Henry ripped out some towels out of the dispenser and hand them to Spud.
"W... w... w... what..." Spud began but couldn't talk.
"Shhh... calm down... that... what you saw... this worm... was a dark spell!" Henry explained and helped Spud to clean himself. "Whoever used this spell on you could see your dreams."
"Where... where you know that... this... thing was in my head?"
"I saw it on the video your friend made." Henry explained and cleaned up the mess with magic. After the sink was clean again, he used a spell to clean the blood out of thier clouthes and pulled out some towels of his trolley and pressed them on the wound off Spud's head. „You said that someone tried to kill you in the subway... I think they used that spell to find you. Does someone know about your ability, instead of your friend?"
"No! I told nobody!" Spud said and they left the restroom.
"I think,... someone does!"
Together they walked back to Trixie and the vampire.
"What happend?" she asked.
"He pulled out a magical-parasite of my head?" Spud said and shocked Trixie.
"Hhhm... you smell tasty!" the vampire said and went closer to Spud.
"Hey... be careful... you're a newborn... and we are not alone here!" Spud said and pushed the vampire away, softly.
"Okay... I want to tell you something. I could take you with me and get you to Greenland... I know there someone who..."
"Hey... stop stop stop..." Trixie said. „I won't go anywhere! What ever happens... we stay here! Here in New York. Till we know what happend!"
"Yes... we already know that the engine was cut off. We know that it was not an accident. We stay." Spud said. „I only have to avoid the subway!"
Everyone looked on Spud really worried. Threw his jacket and under his shirt they could see the big bruise, Spud got after his 'accident' in the subway.
"Spudinski... I think it will be the best when you go with him. Who knows what will happen..." Trixie said but Spud cut her off.
"NO! I tell you what we do now,... we go back to the shop! I was there... the intruders killed you after they stole something... I saw it! Trixie there is more... and we have to find out before the concil catches us..."
Trixie finally agreed and so Henry left the group. The next hour they talked with the vampire about thier evidence. They decide to present this to the magical-press first before telling the concil. Than they walked upstairs to the windows to see Henry leaving...
Henry meanwhile, sat in the right seat in the cockpit of the Oceanic Airlines Boeing 757. They prepared everything for take-off when the passengers arrived with a bus.
"You know... I went to this airline because I wanted to fly to... the Caribbean, or South America, or California maybe... but Greenland... we fly Ice-Freaks to Greenland..." the captain said but Henry didn't listen. "Hey... are you okay?"
"Hehm... oh... yes,... yes, I'm okay." he said and smiled friendly. "Just mad because Greenland! He.. he... he..."
Henry was nervous. Everyone was. Spud, Trixie and the vampire stood in the terminal and looked outside. The vampire just finished a call. "... okay... good! Thank you!..." he said and put his mobile back in his pocket. "I just talked with my 'maker'! He has conections! He will call the magical news-chanels and today afternoon everything will be prepared."
"Your maker? I thaught he attacked you!"
"Yes,... but he helped me after. And he apologized. And... he is a reporter for the biggest vampire channel in magical America."
"Oh... that's helpful." Spud said. "Let's hope that nothing bad happens before we can talk to the press. But we should stay together... just to keep sure..."
"Yeah... Oh look... there is Henry." Trixie said.
In the cockpit...
The both men prepared everything. A flight-attendant came in to hand a note.
"34 Passengers and 6 crew! In a plane that's built for 200!" the captain said mad. "The airline needs other charters!"
"We will come back with 180. So let's enjoy the flight." Henry said and the plane arrived the runway.
"Oceanic 4-4-5-5, you're clear for take off." the air-traffic-conroller in the tower said.
"Roger, Oceanic 4-4-5-5. Thank you!" Henry said and the captain put the two thrust levers to maximum.
The jet start to move... faster and faster the 80 tons of aluminum and steel raced over the runway.
"V-1" Henry said. Now they had to take off,... what ever happens. "Rotate!"
After he said that, the captain carefully pulled on the controller and the nose start to lift from the ground. But than it made... BANG!
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?"
End of Chapter 9
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