Author's Note: As a reminder: The Chipmunks, Chipettes, Dave Seville and all characters within the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise are © to their respective creators. However, the story, characters that are introduced in the vein of this collective story and the songs penned (as marked) are my own.
Chapter 6: Sixth Sense
Dave had only been asleep for less than a few hours. It was one of those evenings where he'd had a lot on his pallette. Between negotiating with the producers and touring promoters, thinking of ways to increase exposure musically for the Chipmunks, helping Alvin, Simon, and Theodore with their writing and instrumentation, as well as serving as a full time father, there were times when life did go a little over his head.
But he also enjoyed the few moments of quiet and the nights he could sleep through without something strange, mischievous, or just plain scary happening. Sometimes all three.
This was not one of those nights, or so he had the worry in the back of his mind as he had settled down that night. He admitted to himself that the events of the night before had worried him, but he believed the boys had understood his talk with them that afternoon, and left the matter at that. He also told Alvin that there was nothing wrong with their attic, and that he'd been there himself about two weeks back when he organized the area and several of the crates that were stored there. There were still many that he had to go through.
Dave wasn't sure what woke him first, the slamming open of his bedroom door, or the shouts of his name by very frantic chipmunks.
"Dave! Dave! Wake up!"
He turned on his bedside lamp and sat up wearily. "Boys, do you know how late it is? What did I tell you guys about being up late at night - you won't rest well for the next day if you keep hours like this."
He rubbed his hands over his face and saw Simon and Theodore breathing frantically, and it was then he realized something was wrong.
"Since it's just you two, I'm guessing Alvin did something, didn't he? What is it this time?" He folded his arms across his chest and sighed heavily. "And please don't tell me he tried to climb the roof again." He felt himself tense a bit at the last note.
"No, Dave, it's not something Alvin did - he was in the attic and...disappeared..." Simon hesitated to find the right words to describe it.
"Disappeared how? And I thought I told you three to stay out of the attic."
"Something kidnapped Alvin, Dave. We saw it! It happened in the attic, even when Alvin monster-proofed it!" Theodore's voice was far more frantic.
"Kidnapped?! Monster-proof...Okay, maybe I should just see what you two are talking about first." Dave attempted to keep his voice level, but he could feel the knot in his stomach tightening as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and followed Simon and Theodore to the attic.
***
"Okay...seriously...this is not the way to make a first impression...oww..." Alvin was a little dazed, but shook himself to his senses as he looked up at the girl who seemed to gaze down at him in concern. Both of them had crash-landed to a ground that Alvin didn't know where because he had shut his eyes for most of the time when the girl had pulled him in. The girl held out a hand, helping Alvin to his feet as he surveyed where they landed.
Alvin knew looking at the four way crossroad, heavy brushes and trees within the heart of a forest that he wasn't anywhere near his attic anymore. And in the light of the moon, he realized exactly what the girl was for certain.
"Y-you're a...ghost?"
She nodded in silence, and tried to speak again, but nothing came out. She seemed to sigh and hang her head.
"Okay...okay. Just don't cry again. I don't understand everything you're saying, but you wouldn't have brought me here if it wasn't important. I'm just not sure why you chose me to bring along."
She hugged him briefly, and a cold shiver went up Alvin's spine - more or less because she was a ghost and felt really cold whenever she came up close to Alvin - but she seemed to run ahead on the path and motion for him to follow her.
"W-wait a minute...don't leave me behind! We just got here!" He sighed, exasperated, as he ran to catch up with her along the smooth, dirt road through the forest. When he finally caught up to where she ran, they came across a village of many old houses, log cabins that were run down to the point of falling over. Some of them had holes in the roofs, while others had broken windows.
"I think you should write a letter to your mayor, saying there's a major safety hazard with half of these buildings. Well...unless your mayor's a ghost too...then I guess it just comes with the territory."
The girl took Alvin by the hand gently and motioned for him to kneel behind some bushes, pressing a finger to her lips.
"Why are we hiding? There's no one here..." Alvin found his voice cutting off with the sounds of several hoofs approaching along the road, and peered carefully around the bush both of them hid to see what was coming on the road.
Alvin saw several horses whining in the moonlight, clamouring like thunder along the road. But what made Alvin's spine shiver were the riders. They seemed human in body, but wore prominent masks over their faces, looking like their eyes and mouths were the carved expressions one would see in jack o' lanterns. Some of them smiled, some of them frowned, others were angry. Alvin saw the girl ghost bristle.
"Who were those guys...?"
She made a series of motions that seemed to point to him and then didn't make much sense otherwise.
"I know you want me to help you, but I don't understand."
She hesitated for a second, pacing in a circle with her hands behind her back, deep in thought. She stopped after about a minute, her face lighting up with an idea, and pointed to the north where they saw the horsemen and carriages traveling, to a large chateau atop a tall, grassy mountain.
"You want us to follow them there? I hate to burst your bubble. There's two of us, and there's like 50 of them. Being outnumbered is an understatement. And even if I don't know what this is about, they don't look very friendly to me." Alvin scowled and pouted his lip while making the latter note to the ghost.
She shook her head negatively, placing a flat palm out with one hand, and walking with fingered legs using the other, then cupped her hands around her ears. Alvin finally understood what she meant.
"You want us to sneak behind them and listen to what's happening? Okay...that I think can deal with. As long as we don't get caught. Then, will you take me home?"
She nodded, and hugged him again. He bristled and casually ushered her away, in part for embarrassment that made his cheeks flush, in addition to the cold of the night air around them and the ghost herself.
"Okay...okay, I know. Let's just go while we still have the chance. And hope that more of those guys don't end up following us down the road. By the way...I don't really know your name or what to call you...it's kinda awkward."
She seemed to blush and made a series of apologetic gestures. She spelled the letters of her name using her fingers.
"Anilie? Am I saying it right as An-e-lee?" Alvin said, pronouncing it phonetically. Judging from her smile, Alvin knew he guessed correctly. He returned the smile, his confidence showing with their plan.
"Okay, Anilie - let's follow those monsters. I'm sure we can find out what they're up to, at least."
The two of them went back to the main road, running through the town and towards the chateau. Alvin hoped somewhere in the back of his mind that he wouldn't get into too much trouble when he went home, but preferred to face that than the potential trouble they could run into with the riders they saw.
***
Alvin and Anilie approached one of the windows of the chateau, looking inside.
"Okay, now that we're here, how do we get in?"
Anilie walked through the wall of the building, sticking her head out and grinning widely. Alvin raised an eyebrow, then rolled his eyes.
"Let me rephrase that...how do I get in?"
She seemed to giggle, then disappeared through the wall briefly, before walking down the hall to a window with vertical steel bars, not glass. She rubbed her hands together, then pulled two bars apart with her ghostly hands, creating a space for Alvin to fit through.
Alvin found himself nervously laughing then. "I guess being a ghost means you must be really strong. I'm glad you're on my side, at least."
Anilie smiled, before helping Alvin up the minor ledge to the bar window, where he inched through the space and they both jumped into the chateau's main hall. Alvin found himself in partial awe, with the structure's brilliant windows open to the full moonlight and casting light on the green carpet that lined the halls. There were a few intimidating sights like the gargoyles and the empty suits of armor with raised swords lined against the grey walls, but Alvin convinced himself that it was part of the territory. Dim, flickering torches illuminated the grand halls of the chateau where the moonlight did not. Alvin still had no clue about where they were exactly, but he knew he had to follow his intuition and realized that Anilie needed him for something - but he still wasn't sure what it was.
"I guess that just leaves us finding out where those riders went. But where exactly are they?" he mused aloud.
Anilie seemed to point down to the ground, and Alvin could tell what she meant with not a lot of thought behind it.
"There's a downstairs here? Or a basement? Okay, if you're sure, and since you sound like you know this place more than me, lead the way. You know it better than I do."
Alvin followed the ghostly girl as they made their way through the grand halls, and to a wooden door that led into a dark stairwell, illuminated by torches of its own, but it seemed dimmer than the light of the hall. Likely, Alvin noted, because there were definitely no windows where they were going.
The way down was long and Alvin didn't know how Anilie had the stamina to go down them without stopping. He was quick on his feet, but by the time he reached the base of the stairs, he was out of breath. He stopped for a moment to recover it, placing his hands on his knees. Anilie seemed embarrassed and walked back to him to make sure he was all right.
"I'm fine, I forget that you don't have to worry about getting tired, since you're a ghost and all."
Loud shrieks of laughter startled them both to attention, and Anilie, who seemed to hear the origin, pointed towards the end of a long corridor, which they walked until they came upon a balcony, over looking a larger room below.
Alvin gripped the railing in front of him with both hands and looked down - seeing the riders from earlier conversing with each other. Some of them stood, leaning against the walls with frozen expressions. The torches in the room made it seem like their masks were lit ablaze, and it made a shiver run through his spine to see the various expressions that crossed their features. The angry ones especially. Others were sitting at wooden tables in what seemed like a modestly sized library, with a podium in front of the room. He saw one of the riders approach the podium, standing behind it and preparing to speak.
"Silence all." His voice was eerily stern, and it commanded attention even without him raising his voice in the heart of the room. The figure had a mask of empty, narrowed black eyes and what seemed to be a mouth that sneered - the flickering flames of the torches made it seem like his expression danced, and it seemed to startle Anilie as Alvin looked from him to her briefly. The riders fell silent, taking their attention to his form as his stood within the room.
"As you are aware," the figure continued to speak, " the night of the red moon will soon be upon us, and our opportunity to cross into the mortal world will soon be complete. Until that point, our quest to capture the spirits of the departed shall continue."
"The night of the red moon..." Alvin found himself thinking aloud, but in a subdued voice. The last thing he needed were a bunch of these guys noticing where he was. But as he thought about what the figure said, he turned to Anilie.
"Wait a minute, if he's talking about capturing spirits...does he mean you too?"
Anilie nodded, a worried frown crossing her expression.
"Now I get why you're afraid of them. But what are they planning to do?"
She put a finger to her lips and pointed downward, as they both turned their attention to the figure speaking, who seemed to continue forward.
"...And this should be our most immense measure of success. Our confinement here has been too long, too weary, too cruel a fate to be bound by the magic of the Ilrietas. So we will show them what being robbed of their spirits feels like. It will be especially rewarding to add them to our ranks, so that we can conquer the lands here, and the realm beyond us. So, join me - comrades and cronies, friends and fools, we shall be victorious!"
A cheer among the group erupted then, and Alvin and Anilie looked at each other with paralleled concern. Alvin turned his gaze back briefly, and noticed something that caught his eye on each of the horse riders - something he hadn't noticed before. Each of them wore a red ribbon, tied in a bow, on the upper left arm of their attire. It made him lower his brow in frustration.
"Those ribbons...wait a minute...that was part of my fortune too! The "red strings" part. Okay, this definitely isn't just 'a fortune'. Simon's gonna owe me more than $20 once I tell him about this, if he even believes me about that."
Anilie gave him a confused look, which made him laugh nervously. "Trust me, it's a long story."
"Sir! I think I hear voices in one of the balcony wings!" one of the riders shouted, and that was more than enough for Alvin to know that someone had caught onto them. Anilie took his hand abruptly and pulled him back into the heart of the corridor from which they came. She drew a circle with her index finger on one of the walls, opening a dark circle similar to the one that they had entered the realm before. She attempted to push Alvin in, but he struggled against her hands propped against his back.
"Wait a minute, Anilie, if they're after you, I can't just leave you here. They'll capture you!"
She shook her head and smiled to him as her form started to disappear.
"Wait...Anilie, where are you going?"
By the time he'd finished his statement, Anilie was gone, and the dark circle he stood in front of had decided it waited long enough, just before drawing Alvin back within it.
"Not again!" But his annoyance was brief when he saw two of the riders coming down the stairs, and realized he'd just had a close call that he'd have to thank Anilie for.
If he ever saw her again.
***
"What kind of things did you boys set up in here?" Dave asked, examining the bedsheet traps and other talismen that were in some areas of the attic. It wasn't anything that Dave could trip on, as he brought one of his own flashlights and carefully maneuvered around the room. Of course, the lanterns that Simon and Theodore had already lit helped move around.
"You mean, what kind of things Alvin set up in here. He planted all these traps. And I think out of all of them, only one went off." Simon noted. "Dave, someone, or something, took him. We saw it happen, but we didn't see what. It might have been something like a ghost, because he was talking to someone we couldn't see."
"That's not like you to say, Simon. I thought you knew better than to believe in something like ghosts. Are you sure you boys weren't dreaming? And that Alvin wasn't here when you woke up?" Dave knelt to put his arms around Theodore and Simon, but just as he did, he heard a sound downstairs that caught his attention.
"You boys sit tight here, I'll be right back."
Dave went downstairs to the living room where he noted the source of the sound, and it alerted his senses. He picked up the telephone on what seemed to be one in several call attempts.
"Hello, Seville Residence."
"David! It's about time, do you know how many times I've been trying to call you?! You must be wearing ear muffs over your head while you're sleeping!"
"Miss Miller..?" Dave recognized the voice of none other than the Chipettes' guardian, and sometimes his usual babysitter for the boys. "Miss Miller, I can't talk right now...It seems Alvin's missing, and the boys woke me up..."
"That's what I'm calling you about." Miss Miller said in a frustrated tone. "I found poor Alvin sleeping on our porch by the door. It's a wonder I even found the poor dear, and let alone I don't know how long he's been out here. If I hadn't been up for my usual glass of milk after midnight, and if he hadn't been snoring, I don't know what to think."
"He's there?!" Dave couldn't hide the surprise in his tone, but he found his nerves were calmer than before.
"Yes, and he's still sleeping, I put him on the couch in my living room and covered him up with a good warm blanket. I tried to wake him up, but it seems he takes after you with your rock solid sleeping habits!"
"Well, if it's okay with you, I'd like to stop by and pick him up now." Dave said with a long exhale.
"Sure. I'm up. But I would let the poor dear sleep. He looks like he had a rough night."
As Dave placed the phone on the receiver, he grabbed his jacket just before the door, and he saw Simon and Theodore walk into the room.
"Dave, did you find Alvin?"
"Yes, Simon, he's at Miss Miller's. How in the world he ended up over there, I have no idea, but I'm going to pick him up now. Apparently, she found him snoring on her front porch."
As he left, Simon and Theodore looked at each other with confusion.
"Sleeping? But Alvin was just up a little while ago! Like it must have been minutes since he disappeared!"
"I know, Theodore. None of this makes any kind of sense." Simon sighed as he shook his head. "Somehow, I don't know if I want to know the reason why."