Verboten
Chapter 22

Friday, October 2, 2009

Disclaimer: I do not own the Winx Club. I do own Andy's parent's names though!

Fore Note: Shout outs to Stills and Photographs, Darev, Phoebe Rerun/Winx Fairy/Phoebe Faulkner (honestly, pick one!), Blosiom, Bloomerica, gamercatgirl, Lindsay, believixMusa, the Oblivious Prattler, the Melodic Muse, BloomandSky4ever, floraHelialover, Fairie-of-Darkness, SabrinaWitch and everyone else from Winx-Fairies. *waves* Realise that you don't need to review or even read this story to be here. You people are just awesome.

This is also for a notable writer who is now gone: Nisa Tunesque. I miss Tegryn.

The King of Eraklyon was anything but sane at the moment. He lost sleep. Too much sleep. He hovered over Roxy just as much as Chandra and Artos did. Roxy's wellbeing was his priority whether he liked it or not and he could not just go into Gardenia looking for Bloom. Roxy was on her deathbed. His girlfriend and future wife could come later when they all cooled down.

Asta could plainly see the logic in that. It might seem wrong or ethically anyways but it was the right thing to do. The whereabouts of the Sparks princess was none of her business even though Sky had ordered her to find her. None of it was Sky's fault and Asta saw no reason for him to go gallivanting into the strange city. This was what she thought and she didn't care about who thought otherwise. They could go to Hell and drown in the frozen lake of blood and guilt for all she cared.

Latently, she realised, when did she get so distant from everything and everyone? How did she end up acting like this? She had expected to come from Sky's angle years ago when he got the crown but when had she started hanging out with Brandon so casually? Because he's your coworker. She never really saw him as a friend before until after they arrived on Earth. They were not romantic feelings, she knew for sure. Just really odd ones. It was a melancholy feeling as the dead had come to haunt her. Why?

She could deal with her own emotional issues later, she prioritized.

What troubled her deeply was how was Roxy going to be when she woke up? If she woke up. Asta had a sinking feeling that she had experience something like this already. There was no way that the Earthling would not wake up shaken by the experience of such bloodlust and anger. Asta felt the anger try to force itself passed her shields and into her.

(There it was again. That haunting feeling that she had felt this before.)

Oddly enough, Asta expected herself to get out of that 'Nebula' situation with a major migraine of sorts after hearing so much emotional noise from a spectre but instead, she was right as rain. Strange, maybe ghosts did not really bother her as much as she thought they would. Maybe it just depended on the ghost?

Asta gave herself a quick introspection and realised 'who cared?'

Whatever.

Back to finding the princess. She had a job to do.

The witch sauntered in through the backdoor of the Love&Pet shop wanting to avoid the commotion in the front of the shop. Briefly, she looked into the shop to do a Winx Club headcount and noted a certain specialist's departing presence before she went up a set of spiralling stairs and found herself in the Winx Club's loft. Her eyes were assaulted with a rainbow of colours. Pinks, blues, greens, oranges, yellows, they were everywhere.

Asta threw herself onto the couch in the living room area not far from Tecna who was concentrating on a holographic projection of Gardenia. Tecna tried to ignore the witch's presence biting her lip. Obviously, she was quite annoyed at her. Asta did not need to read her mind to know when she was not desired.

"Spit it out," Asta said brusquely.

"Pardon me?" Tecna jumped in her seat and turned to look at the witch.

"Clear the air and tell me what you've got against witches."

"I have nothing against you!" Tecna defended. "I barely even know you!"

"Then why are you so apprehensive about me?" Asta spat back irritated. She stared at Tecna defiantly and crossed her arms, intent on not budging.

The moment hang like a dead thing in the air. Tecna turned her back so that the witch would not see her face. She idly pushed at hologram functions trying to pass the time.

Irritated, Asta made a suggestion. "Have you tried Andy?" The musician had been acting rather apprehensive in the groceries. He might not have seen her but she sure saw him as he tensely spoke to Sky in line while she went off to get tomatoes at the last minute. She could feel the tension emanate off the guy. Had she been more observant at the time, she might have even tried to read his heart.

"What?" Tecna asked, almost missing what the witch had said.

"Bloom's ex," Asta explained. "Have you tried looking him up? She didn't run to her parents. Who else do we know that she possibly run to on such short notice?"

Tecna angrily started to type like mad trying to find the musician's address.

-

Andy strode down the street hurriedly. Damnit, he wished he had a car of his own or else he would have had been home sooner. Would Bloom even be there still? His heart froze and turned to ice at the thought and he started to half-run half-walk. He was breathing harshly when he got to the door of his house. He shoved the key in and slammed the door open.

"BLOOM!" he yelled into his hopefully not empty house.

Godamnit, what the hell had happened last night?! Fuck, how much shit was Bloom in? Who the hell was Sky and what was he? Where did he come from? How had he met Bloom? And lastly, was she in trouble?

"BLOOM!"

Where was she?!

"BLOOM?!"

Andy ran into the living room.

Bloom wearily poked her head out from the kitchen and Andy almost collapsed right on the spot as he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he remembered, "Kill her?"

He headed straight for her and roughly grabbed her arm to deposit her on the couch in the living room despite Bloom's protests.

"Andy, what are you doing?!" she whimpered.

At the moment, he was insensible; incapable of forming a coherent thought. He said the first thing that came to mind: "What the fuck did you do, Bloom?"

"Wh-what? What happened?" Bloom rubbed the part of her arm that Andy had grabbed and made a pitiful face. Her face had a new coat of tears on them. Had she been crying while he was away? Screw it, there were other things to deal with it.

"I just saw Sky now at the grocery." Andy paced back and forth and ran his hands through his hair. "Fuck, Bloom, what did you do? He wants to fucking kill you!"

"WHAT?!"

God, why him? Why him of all people? Why did his ex-girlfriend have to come running to him? Good Lord, school was about to start again and he was hiding his ex-girlfriend in the guestroom. Wow, he could so see that going over great if he ever mentioned this Rio or Marc. Just, why me? Andy looked to the ceiling for answers.

Screw God, right now his priority was to find out what had happened. Granted, it's only been less than a day since Bloom arrived but inwardly, he wished none of this had ever happened. Why could she not run to her parents instead?

"I saw Sky and he was talking with some messed up girl with long black hair—in Greek, too, believe it or not."

He looked at Bloom for a hint of something and saw her stiffen. She seemed to have whispered something and then "I should leave," she said all of a sudden.

"Oh no, you don't! Not until you explain to me what happened!" Andy said out of concern. "SIT DOWN!"

She sat back down. She looked at him terrified.

Andy's heart cracked at the sight. "Who the hell are you, Bloom?!" Where was the Bloom that he had known in high school? The one with the spine and the audacity to do the right thing?

Bloom had been and still was infuriatingly impossible since last night. He had received no answer and goddamnit, he deserved some. He was blindly floundering around thinking up the worst of situations. He wanted to at least have an idea of what was going. Whatever Bloom had done, he was indefinitely involved now.

"I-I…" Bloom sputtered. "Are you sure about what they said?"

"I don't know! They were speaking Greek. Last time I checked, I wasn't exactly the star of the class."

"But kill me?!"

"That word was pretty clear! Bloom, you have to tell me what happened."

"BUT KILL ME?! Sky wouldn't kill me! I didn't mean to—I didn't mean to-to…"

"I'm calling the police," Andy said all of a sudden. That would definitely help something. He had no idea what but it would be something.

"No, don't!" Bloom went on a triad and ran for the phone.

Andy was quicker and grabbed the cordless phone and ran into the bathroom to and locked the door. This time, nothing would stop him and he would not have second thoughts as soon as he saw tears. He was about to dial when phone began to ring again. Damn it. There was no caller ID and Andy answered it angrily.

"Hello?" he said irritated.

"Andy Amorelli?" It was a girl's voice; familiar but chillingly estranged. He did not recognise the voice at all. There was a certain attractive quality to it. It was not exactly high-pitch girlish but deep and giving a sense of practicality. She had no accent.

"Who is this?"

There was a pause.

Ignoring the question, the caller continued. "Andy, is Bloom there?"

"I said 'who is this?!'" Andy said in alarm. Shit, they knew that Bloom was here! What the hell had Bloom done?!

"I have no business with you. Give me Bloom, Andy. This is an important matter that only the princess can hear."

Princess?

What the fuck?

Now, they were seriously shitting with him.

"Listen, I don't know who the fuck you are or what the hell did Bloom do but I'm not handing the phone over until you answer some questions!" Andy threatened.

"Thank you for admitting that Bloom is at your house," the caller said cordially like a telemarketer. "We will be there as soon as possible to pick the princess up. Once again, thank you. Oh, oh! Sky says 'hi!'" she said in a rather nasty malicious voice. She hung up.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

-

"We have to go—"

"Who was that on the phone?" Bloom cut in as soon as Andy stepped out of the phone. She backed away from the bathroom door clearing having been listening through the door. "You didn't call the police, did you?"

"No. Bloom, we have to go! I don't know what the hell you did but right now, someone is coming and I don't think they're very nice."

"But—!"

"Just get in the car!" He had meant the family car but did he really have time to deal with technicalities?

Andy had this sinking feeling that whatever Bloom had done, it was really serious.

-

"You handled that very well," Tecna sniped. "And slow down!"

"I don't care." Asta flipped her phone shut and shoved it in her pocket. Driving, she took a sharp corner and sped down the street. So, her suspicions had been right. The princess had gone back to her ex. Was it in spite of Sky or because she did not want to be found easily? Either way, it did not work. She had found her in less than a day since the incident with Roxy. Not bad, Asta thought, she probably could have been faster had she not needed sleep or to write incident reports.

Asta came to a halt in front of a nondescript house that looked like every other one on the street. This one had a different pattern of flowers in its front garden that made it different from others. The witch stepped out of the vehicle and went up to ring the doorbell. She waited the customary half-minute before proceeding to stoop down and pick the lock after no one had answered.

"What are you doing?!" Tecna said aghast.

"Picking the lock, what else? Open!" Asta opened the door and sauntered in around the house as if she were checking it out to buy it. At the same time, she extended her mind to scan the place for anything. A glazed look enveloped her eyes as she did so. Tecna stood speechless at the doorstep by the fact that Asta had just broken and entered a house without so much as forethought.

There was no one in the house anyone remotely important, Asta noted but the evidence of the mess such as opened drawers in the living room with messy piles of paper proved that someone had been in a hurry. She looked at the titles without touching them. They looked like important papers. Birth certificates of Caterina Giuliana del Rossi and Stefano Rinaldo Amorelli; passports, insurance, phone bills…where was Andrea Alfeo Amorelli? (At the same time, alliteration much?)

The house was in such a clean state except for the occasional mess in the most random places.

Quickly, Asta stretched her mind thin looking for a certain type of panic and the wafting memory of her voice in someone's mind. If they had ran, it was more than likely that Andy was thinking about what she had said on the phone and her voice would be resonating through the city.

"Sky says 'hi!'" There was a cringe of fear. Asta sent her mind flying over the skies of Gardenia and honed in on a certain navy blue slightly used car speeding down a street ten blocks away. She caught sight of a patch of red hair and the prevalence of fear. Bingo.

-

"Andy, where are we going?!" Bloom whimpered in the passenger seat of Andy' car.

"I don't know." Andy had jumped into the car just after retrieving all his important documents. He had no idea where he was going or what he was going to do but Bloom was obviously in a lot more danger than she had led him to believe. If complete strangers were capable of finding his last name, his nickname, his phone number and his address, he would worry and now he was. After a moment of thought, "Rome."

Latter Note: I'm trying not to be nitpicky about what exactly happens in each chapter since I had already planned out 'Andy's Saga' on paper and I don't want to deviate. I hate deviating from the plan. I don't want to be a perfectionist when it comes to individual chapters. I focus more on the overall plot.

Anyways, Asta is on manhunt for Bloom (and Andy) with Tecna along for the ride. Andy is still totally confused; 'princess' did not make it any better. And they're on their way to ROME!

Why Rome? Because I want to keep the locations simple and easy to imagine with the help of Google Earth.

At the same time, you're witnessing Asta's powers. No, they're not like Darcy's. Asta, since she's an original character is obviously to have some special powers. And yes, she is supposed to be a deliberately confusing and A-hole of a person as usual.

I've noticed that I've taken a turn to swearing a lot in recent chapters but I guess it can't be helped considering what had happened. It's supposed to emphasize Andy's confusion.

Anything else I should address?

Oh, hey, trip with the Air Cadets tomorrow to see vintage planes at a museum called Vintage Wing! WHEEE!