Alfie's Point of View
If I thought Fabian's land was awesome than my land must be the best place in the entire universe. Where Fabian's land had streets lined with stone buildings mine had glowing lights and twirling signs. It looked like an amusement park, filled with happy people and random freaks. There were literally people walking around with two heads and tails sprouting from their bodies. Men, at least I think they were men, were selling toys and candy for only two gold coins. Everything was loud, obnoxious, and just basically annoying. It was perfect to say the least.
"Alfie...is that castle spinning?" Amber stretched out her arm and my eyes darted to where she was pointing. The answer to Amber's question was yes. There was a spinning castle. And it was awesomesauce. It was a midnight blue that had vines growing all over it in this elaborate sort of pattern I had never seen back home. The castle shone with a vibrant glow all around it. And I'm not one for architecture or whatever but it was definitely a unique looking place, it had those typical sort of castle tower things. The kind where princesses get stuck and cry about their hair. But in the middle of these towers was a large pentagon shaped center that was made of glass and had a huge roller coaster shooting out into the skyline. The whole structure, like Amber had pointed out, was spinning in this slow majestic way that had me absolutely mesmerized. Zombieland had nothing on this castle.
"Yeah...isn't it totally awesome?" I exclaimed to my friends. My excited words were met with blank and annoyed stares. Whatever, it didn't bother me. This was my kingdom and it was ten times better than Fabian's. I couldn't pick out anything wrong with it! How could it be cursed? Everything was perfect!
"Not really. It's giving me a headache." noted Mick. Rolling my eyes I darted over to one of the many stands that lined the street. The sign above it advertised a fast paced game of Magic Chariot Races- A Game For All Ages. A tall man with pale skin was peddling it to all that walked by. Saying stuff like how it was only beatable by the lost prince, whatever that meant. I just knew it was totally awesome looking and I had to have a go.
"Hey Mister! Does it cost to play?" I ran up to the booth, eager to start playing the game. He glanced up at me, raising a hairy eyebrow and wrinkling his nose. He nodded his head and tightly closed his mouth. Raising a bony, and honestly kind of gross looking, finger right up to my face he began to speak, in that kind of old man American Southern drawl accent.
"Of course it does. Five aurei. Do you have five aurei?" He asked suspiciously, running his eyes over me, obviously looking for a money pouch like everybody else had around their belts.
Grabbing at my clothes I searched around for a bag similar to those that were hanging off the clothes of the people who were milling about. I couldn't find any pouches so I dove my hands into my pockets, looking for any "aurei". What ever that was.
"Guys! Do we have any aurei?" I yelled back at my friends, who were still standing where I left them. All of them glared at me with indifferent and frustrated faces. Fabian, whose face was transforming into the one he got when he was thinking, was the only one who said something.
"Midas said he packed money. Check your rucksack." he called out to me. Doing what he said I tossed the small backpack off my and threw it on the table. Unsnapping it I gleefully pulled out a small bag that lay on top of everything else in the bag. I grabbed five gold coins with a face of from the bag and handed them over to him. He snapped them away from me in a single second and began to speak, this time in a faster voice that was probably powered by the new money he had just made.
"Okay then boy. I'll tell you how to play but I guarantee you won't win. Nobody has ever beaten me." I ignored his snarky comment, a skill I had perfected over years of being Jerome's friend, and nodded my head to hear him.
"Continue." I commanded him, trying to put off the smug look he had over his face.
He glared at me, probably upset I had blatantly disrespected him. I had a feeling that didn't happen often at all. But after all I was Alfie Lewis, it was pretty easy for me to disrespect authority figures. Actually I would refer to it as a talent above all else.
"You use your inner power to move the chariot along the track, avoid the obstacles, and reach the end before I do. Do you think you're up for it?" He asked me, raising an eyebrow high into his hairline.
What a stupid question for him to ask, of course I was up for it. I just had no idea what inner power was. Fabian had inner power I guess. I mean he did say that funny rhyme and restore a whole kingdom back from a golden state. And Nina had inner power too, being the Chosen One and all I guess inner power came in the job description. But me have inner power? Inner power of awesomeness maybe but no matter what King Midas had said about all of us being descendants of gods I still felt like the same dope I always was. I wasn't special enough to have inner power. My inner power was probably luck. Well if I even had inner power at all.
"Alfie come on! This is a waste of time! We should be looking for...something! Not playing street games!" Jerome yanked at my arm from behind as he tried to pull me away from the booth.
"Mate get off! I already paid. It'll only take a second." I shooed him off, not paying him any attention. I heard his frustrated sigh and his irritated call back to the gang.
"I tried."
Rolling my eyes I turned my sights back to the mini chariot track that lay on the table. It looked similar to that of that one in Rome except for the fact that is was well, not broken and tinier. Two chariots sat next to each other, one was a light colour that seemed to gleam and the other was, honestly, a piece of crap. It was rickety looking, like it could fall apart at any second. Was that supposed to be mine? Because if it was it was completely unfair! Even more unfair than toilet duty!
"That's yours. On your marks, get set, go!" He yelled as he pointed down at the crappy chariot. Shocked he had started without warning I let out a scream to make me chariot move. Which is totally insane but there didn't seem to be any other ways of making it move.
"Go chariot! Go!" I yelled as I threw an encouraging first in the air. It's miniature wheels began to glow an incredible green colour. It seemed to me as though it was going to shoot forward instantly. Instead it lurched forward about an inch. Damn thing! Mustering my anger and excitement I felt a bubbling feeling start in my stomach. I didn't even have anything gassy today but I knew it had to be something building inside of me. I let out another yelp of encouragement. "GO!" In a second the chariot turned from slowly inching forward to shooting around the track like a lightning bolt.
My crappy looking chariot began to transform before my eyes. It rebuilt itself in a slew of the green light and it looked to be undefeatable now. I heard the old bat of a man, who reminded me of Victor, next to me let out a screech as my chariot passed past his multiple times over.
"Ha! I won! What do I get!" I shouted out gleefully. The man looked back at me. I could literally see little sparks of flames light up in his eyes. His face was beet red and a vein in his head was throbbing.
"Throw them in jail! Nobody beats me! Nobody but the-!You and your friends are going to the dungeons! Now!" He raised a hand up and yet another bright light enclosed me and (I'm assuming) my friends.
"Alfie! Wake up!" Nina's voice commanded me from a distance. She sounded all murky and distorted like we were underwater or something. But unless we decided to go swimming I knew that wasn't the case. Then I realized why she sounded so weird. No light was shining through my eyes, even though they were open.
Groaning I blinked repeatedly, trying to regain my vision. Slowly light started to pour through my eyes and I began to see fuzzy little blobs that looked like Amber and Nina. The blobs began to turn into features and I began to be able to make out both my friends and the room we were in.
"Where are we?" I shouted as I zoomed up, bumping Nina in the head in the process.
"Ow!" She yelped as she threw her hand onto her head. "Alfie!" She glared at me as she rubbed her head. I threw my hands up in defense but then I got back to looking at where we were. And that's when I started to panic.
Stone walls surrounded us on three sides and tall silver bars on one that led into a deep darkness that was lit only with sole candles that hung on the damp walls. I knew what is was, jail, but I wasn't exactly sure how we got here.
"We're in the place we all figured Patricia would wind up some day. Juvenile detention of sorts." Mick cracked as he crossed his arms over his chest. His face was scrunched together and he looked well, in simple terms, pissed. Actually he looked more pissed than the time Jerome and I put pink hair dye in his shampoo. And he was pretty pissed then.
"Hey! I take offense in that! If anything I would be doing hard time! I'm 18 in two years, I'll be doing big girl time!" Patricia spat as she shot Mick a death stare. Mara rolled her eyes but didn't defend either Mick or Patricia.
I sat in silence for a while, trying to understand what was happening. That was kind of hard for me, because let's face it, I'm not that clever or that smart for that matter. But what I gathered was yeah we were in some alternate fantasy universe, we were actually from this universe we were in, every Anubis house member was from one of the lands, Fabian was from the last one and I was from this one, in this land of Mercury I played a game with some freak, I beat him using my "inner power", and then he threw us in jail. Fun.
Amber began to whine. And when I say whine I mean whine. Her voice went high-pitched, her fists rolled up into balls, and her face went red.
"I want to get out. It smells in here, just like rubbish, I have to go to the bathroom and it's cramped. Let us out!" She screamed the last part and ran up to the bars. Grabbing on to them she started shaking them furiously. "Let us out! Let us out!" She screamed into the dim dark.
"Amber! Shush okay. Nobody is going to let us out and you screaming is giving me a headache. So please just stop it." Fabian muttered as he buried his face into his hands. Mara agreed with him with a nod of her head and a few words.
"Yeah Amber, please be quite." Mara said gently. Amber flipped her head back at her, a look of pure annoyance on her face.
"Oh what do you know. You're always the book smart girl, I'm the pretty princess in distress. Something you would know nothing about!" She barked. Mara was taken aback, a look of pure shock on her face.
"Amber! Come on! That was harsh!" Jerome shot. In all honesty that surprised me, normally Jerome would laugh at someone's expense. I knew he had a thing for Mara, I mean he basically lived in Maraland at all times but still. Something was up and I wanted to know what. But I figured I could wait until we got out of our mythical jail.
"Sorry Mara. I'm just cranky is all. I didn't mean it or anything." Amber apologized, a look of real genuineness in her eyes. Mara didn't say a word, instead she just nodded and looked towards the floor.
"Do you guys hear footsteps?" Nina asked softly as she held up a finger to hush us all. I strained my ears to hear whatever it was Nina was hearing. Distantly I heard the stomping of feet. All I could tell was that they were getting closer fast and they sounded mad. If footsteps could sound mad...
"We have to get out of here!" Fabian tensed up as he whispered quickly.
"Why? Maybe they're coming to help us!" Mick said.
Patricia snorted haughtily and looked at Mick with a disapproving and condescending look covering her face.
"Oh yeah the people who put us in jail totally want to help us! Nice thought Mick!" Patricia gave him two sarcastic thumbs up to go along with her rude remark and sneer. If we had been in any other situation I probably would have laughed. But I didn't because this was actually a very serious situation.
"How are we supposed to get out? This is literally a jail cell. I'm pretty sure they're meant to keep people from , oh I don't know, not getting out!" Jerome whispered. Mara and Amber were scrambling around, looking for an exit.
Sighing I looked around for an exit. It was my fault we were even trapped here in the first place. If I hadn't been so childish we could have been searching around the city looking for, well answers I guess. God I was stupid! I always had to ruin everything. No wonder people can't stand me sometimes. I can't do anything right. Cursing myself I felt angry little tears prick at my eyes. I wish I could save my friends but I was completely powerless.
Wishing I could do something I could hear my heart began to pound faster as the footsteps got louder. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that same green light that had been at the track and back at Anubis House. It was drifting over to one block on the back wall. Racing over to it as quickly and as quietly as I could. The light gleamed brighter as I came closer I put my hand on the stone.
In a flash the stones began to disappear into the green light leaving a human sized hole in the wall that led into a dark unknown, that was actually probably the safest place for us.
"Go! Come on! Through here!" I called out to my friends. Without a hesitation they began to run through the passageway and the more of my friends that went through the faster and heavier the footsteps became and then I could hear heated voices that started to scream in anger yet I still couldn't see where they were coming from. The last of my friends went through and just as I was just about to run after them our captor's screamed at me.
"Stop you fool stop!" He screamed, and I turned around to face my captors and all I could make out was a clown. A clown. An angry one at that. The clown began to claw at the lock and I rushed forward into the passage just as the clown and his friends unlocked the cell.
As soon as I stepped into the passage the green light returned and boarded up the hole that had let me in. I could hear the clown and his men's screams of anger and I smirked in my small victory. Then I turned my attention to the dim passageway that had seemed to eaten up my friends and my courage.
"Guys..." I called out into the darkness. My friends were nowhere to be seen. Probably because nothing was to be seen. The room was almost completely empty of all light. A small flicker seemed to be coming from the seemingly endless passage. It was like a horror game, except there was no option to quit and save my game.
"Over here Alfie!" Amber's sweet voice beckoned me from the same place where the light was coming from. Not wanting to waste anytime I began to job over to the sound of her. When I reached it I found all of my friends, all out of breath except for fitness freak Mick, standing in a circle staring at the wall.
"It's a dead end! Alfie your land is awful. At least in Fabian's we had places to go!" Patricia complained, crossing her arms in front of her chest and glaring at me with a look of annoyance specific to the Goth Pixie herself.
"Oh sorry Trixie. I'll file a formal complaint with the government for you ok? Oh wait! They want us in jail! Nevermind that idea!" I shot back at her. I was annoyed too but there was no need for Patricia to be so whiny. Honestly I wished we were still back in Fabian's land. Or the Land of Jupiter or whatever it was called. There things seemed to happen easily. But maybe it wasn't the land that did that. Maybe it was Fabian. He always seemed to have things figured out. Me, well I was just a jokester, a clown. Just like that fella who had been chasing us. Knowing myself in the way well, only I could know, I knew it wasn't going to be as easy it had been back there. Mostly because things didn't come that easily to me. I was no hero. How can I get my friends out of this, when somedays I can barely leave class without tripping over my desk.
"Alfie, isn't there some sort of light. Like Fabian had? That seemed to be pretty damn useful before." Mick asked me as he kicked at the wall. His face all twisted around in a look of boredom and disinterest.
"Yeah there was! What do you think got us out of jail? It's just...MIA right now I guess." I replied. Now even Mick was comparing me to Fabian. Great. Just great. Next I know I'll be compared to Amelia Pinches. What a lovely thought.
"Alfie...just concentrate. Close your eyes. And just think. Maybe something will come to you," Nina spoke, looking at me with encouraging eyes. Ugh. What an easy thing for the Chosen One turned Princess to think. Just think! It'll come naturally! Never. Selena Gomez is such a liar.
Even though I was miffed I did what Nina suggested. Things seemed to turn out well for her when she followed those weird instincts she had. Shutting my eyes I tried my hardest to tune out all the random thoughts that were swimming around my mind. All the pranks I had scheming in my mind took a backseat and I tried to concentrate on my mysterious inner power and the green light and the crazy spinning castle. Surprisingly enough I felt like something was growing inside of me.
"Is it just me or does Alfie look like he's going to the toilet?" Jerome observed. I half smiled and almost broke my concentration to make a comment back but suddenly a jumble of words appeared in my head. Grabbing at my hair I felt myself tip backward and I grimaced in pain.
"Aprire la porta di Mercurio," I mumbled the words to myself, probably mispronouncing them all. Seeing as how I had just seen them in my head, and had not really heard them.
"What does that mean?" Amber asked me as she put her hand on my shoulder shaking me to full Alfie Alertness mode.
"La porta means door. Mercurcio means Mercury. In Italian." Fabian offered up his explanation. Thank god. All those books he reads, at least something useful stuck. A door...now a door would be useful. Maybe if I actually spoke the words with proper pronunciation, something was always harping on me about, they would do something.
"Okay...I got this. Aprire la porta di Mercurio!" I yelled out, trying to gather as much power behind it as I could. As quickly as the the word Mercurio had left my mouth a green burst of light went all around the stone walls and began to shape an outline of a door on the wall in front of us. I guess my inner power was starting to be act...more powerful.
"Alfie you're amazing!" Amber cried as she gave me a quick hug and ran to the door, swinging it open. Smiling I, as well as the rest of us, followed behind her. I could hear a couple of the others make positive and supporting comments and it made me smile. At least I could do something right. "Alfie I take it back! This place is awful! I almost want to go back to jail!" Amber screamed.
Confused I took a good hard look at what was ahead. And sadly I had to agree with Amber. A dark, dingy sewer like area was in front of us. Green slimy creatures were crawling around, and broken toys were floating in pools of water. It was absolutely awful. While above ground was heaven, this place...well this place was where dreams came to die.
"Guys...I think I found where the curse of this land is hiding out." Mick pointed towards a large clocktower far off in the distance. Unlike the rest of this place, that had a sick green glow, the tower was giving off an evil dark black colour.
"Wow meathead. That's probably the best observation you've ever made. Congratulations." Jerome snipped. "Now how will we get all the way over there. Seems pretty far. And seeing as how we've lost our blessed ponies it's going to take days to get over there." Jerome grimaced and reached back to touch his rucksack. "But at least we have these handy bags. I'm sure they'll save the day."
Just as I was about to say something, a small girl emerged from the shadows, a tattered Harry Potter like robe covered her body, and a dirty dress was under that. Amber was probably having a fashion freakout. She smiled at us, or more specifically me. Her eyes were glowing that same shade of green as that mysterious light and if I didn't know any better I'd swear she was an alien. A nice alien though.
"Don't be silly. Your bags won't save the day. But the son of Mercury will. He will break the eternal night." And as quick as appeared, she disappeared.
Totally an alien. An alien who was way more confident in my ability to save the day than I was.
AN-Well I guess I haven't updated in almost three years. Oops. Here's an update though. I found this on my old google docs and decided to finish this chapter and upload it. Ummm all my apologies. So anyway a little note, this was written pre S2. And although I did watch it if I do continue this I probably won't add in Eddie. And as for Season 3...I never watched it. Too many people leaving for me to even want to try. If anyway one does want me to continue S1 will be what it's based on. So yeah many thanks to anyone who reads this and my previous reviewers. Sorry for keeping you hanging.