Chapter 13 - Facing the evil.
.
.
.
Alex and Justin look at each other, for a moment their expressions letting out the tension of the situation. Justin breaks the disturbing silence. "You didn't flash us here, did you?"
"I wasn't even holding my wand. So, that wasn't you, either?" Alex replies.
"My wand was right at your face. You would've seen if I had done it." He shoots back. Alex takes the aggressive tone of his answer as mere preoccupation for the school and the students under his watch. Even Justin notices he overreacted, so he takes a few calming breaths while looking around. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" He asks.
"I'm thinking that Mom will be really pissed that you left without saying goodbye. But I'm sure that's not what you were thinking."
"Now, I am!" He squeals.
"Calm down! What is she gonna do? Ground you?"
"I don't know. Holding me around her for three hours didn't feel bad AT ALL!" He answers in pure sarcasm.
"Okay, I get it. She can get creative at punishing you. Now, can we focus on what's going on in here?"
"YOU started it!" Justin retorts.
"Fine! Now I'm ending it. Let's go!" She gestures toward the big doors that take to inside the castle, to the entrance hall. They hang wide open, maybe because whatever happened was sudden, not leaving time to close it in reaction.
"Let's look inside." He agrees.
Alex pulls her wand and starts walking in first. She enters the hall followed by Justin. Same as outside, no living soul is in there, not even one sound heard.
"Where's everybody?" Alex asks.
"There was something threatening the school or my wand wouldn't show the alarm. So they are either hiding or..."
"Someone did something to them." Alex completes after Justin hesitates for a second.
"That would be the other possibility." Justin replies.
"No! I mean I'm sure someone did something to everybody. And that someone is Fiendl."
"Alex, let's investigate first."
"Come on, Justin! How much more proof do you need? You said yourself I built a strong case against him."
"Those are good evidences, but not enough to close the case."
"You know, I hate when your evidences get in the way of my great stories." Alex complains.
"Why don't we focus on finding where everybody is first? Then we think about who did it." Justin suggests.
"If we figure out who did it, we can find out what he did." Alex counterarguments. "…I just wish he would show up, already. It would spare us a lot of work."
"Yeah, right! As if that ever happens!" Justin let's out in sarcasm.
Then, for a response to Alex's wish, a wizard starts materializing just outside the front doors. Even before getting fully formed, the two have their wands on target. And, surely is Fiendl as Alex predicted.
"I KNEW IT!" Alex says, slapping Justin's arm. "You are the evil wizard responsible for this." She accuses Fiendl.
"Yes! It's me!" Fiendl confirms, for the first time supporting an angry tone and a fierce stare.
"So you are responsible for the attacks on the school!" Justin wonders.
"He just said that!" Alex remarks. "By the way, YOU FRAMED ME FOR IT!" She complains, angrily.
"Well, I was going to frame Stumbler at first." Fiendl answers. "But when I understood how your relationship works it seemed a lot funnier to throw that on you and watch from afar. And you two fell so easily for my distractions and never saw what I was doing behind your back."
"That's why my wand kept sending signals during the attacks. The app was signaling whatever you were doing."
"And the 'extraordinary' Headmaster Russo never saw it coming." Fiendl mocks him. "Crumbs will be so disappointed in you." He completes with fake disapproval.
"Professor Crumbs! That's right!" Alex quietly muses. The sudden realization of the events that landed her the job at WizTech now take a new meaning. She looks up at Fiendl with a big confident smile. "You're just forgetting one thing!" She confronts him.
"Uhm! No, I don't think I am." Fiendl replies with confidence. And even Justin looks at her doubtfully.
Alex explains. "You may have played us. But what you missed is that Professor Crumbs played you."
"How so?" Fiendl asks, completely lost.
"What you didn't notice is that he made you put me in here, together with Justin. And NO ONE has ever beaten us when we were together."
"That's right, Alex!" Justin agrees, full of confidence and pride.
"And that's not all." Alex continues. "I've been on to you for a long time. …" She takes a dramatic break. "…And I know all about you." Uhm! Is she playing him.
Fiendl snarls in anger. "Then, I guess you two are really as good as your reputations say." Yeah, right! "If you know it, then you must have found out who I am." Fiendl says.
"Oh, yes. We do!" Yeah, she is so playing him.
And as soon as Alex says it, Justin notices her game. "Yes, we do!" Justin plays along. "And I demand to know right now why you're doing this."
"Why else would it be?" He complains, raving with anger. "You have no idea what you caused to my family." He takes a moment, his face bringing a whining expression. "My dear sister Mary Beth Evilini." He laments. "She was the only one in the family that I didn't detest." He professes, finishing with some anger. "…Oh, yes, we had some memorable fights." The man sniffles. "…I treasure all the moments where we almost ripped each other's heads off." His whiny expression gets deeper and deeper.
Alex and Justin look at each other with scrunched up faces. Then, an awkward feeling of familiarity takes over, making them look away, back to Fiendl.
He continues. "And now we can only yell at each other from behind the protective plastic shield."
"That's a twisted family love." Alex states, trying to push away the awkwardness.
"Family love?" Fiendl protests angrily, his whiny expression disappearing faster than a blink of an eye. "I wouldn't go that far." He finishes.
"Wait!" Alex says. "If Evilini is your sister, how do you still have powers?"
"Hah!" He lets out in a self-satisfied tone. "I've STOLEN them." He keeps a creepy grin on. "Bit by bit, the strongest abilities from wizards all over the world. Then I changed my name and returned to take my revenge on all of you … That is, right after I got rid of Adlib. That man got on my nerves."
"I know, right?" Alex agrees. "It was so stupid how he kept quoting poems all the time! And he kept dropping those…"
"ALEX!" Justin shouts, making her stop talking and look at him. "Could you, please, not agree with the evil guy, here?"
"Sorry!" She replies.
"Wait! So your name is not Fiendl?!" Justin states about the obvious similarity and connotation of the evil man's last name.
"Yes, it is!" Fiendl casually answers.
"But you said you changed your name!" Alex completes, and Justin agrees, nodding.
"I changed my first name." Fiendl explains.
"So you kept 'Fiendl' and chose 'Percy' for a name?" Alex asks him with the mocking well implied.
"Percy is a perfectly good name!" Fiendl whines.
"Not really!" Justin agrees with Alex.
"Yeah! I mean…" Alex takes over. "…your real name can't be much worse than Percy?" She laughs.
"I'm Pervercival Fiendl!" He proudly fills his chest, practically chanting his real name.
"You know, Percy is nice." Alex shoots without missing a bit.
"Yeah, super." Justin agrees.
"You both shut up!" Fiendl shouts. "Enough with this pointless talk. I have my plan to take care of, and you two have to be trapped in there, and suffer my revenge. Goodbye!" He lifts his wand and disappears again.
Justin and Alex look at each other.
"Damn!" Alex shouts. "I wanted to get more away from him about his plan."
"Me too!" Justin agrees. "I think now we have to find out where everybody is. Maybe they can tell us something."
"That if they are still here." Alex says.
"He wouldn't take the risk of letting people out. They could tell the authorities and ruin his plan. I think they are still in here. But where?" Justin thinks hard about it. He surely knows the entire school by now, but he can think of so many possibilities, each to be used in a different scenario depending on Fiendl intentions. And they don't have time to go through all of them.
"Hey! What about the ballroom?" Alex suggests.
"Yeah! Right!…" Justin recognizes. He knows the ballroom is a big space with basically one single exit. It is a good place to lock people up and reduce the possibilities of an escape. "…Wait a minute. How do you know about the ballroom? It's locked. No one should be able to get in there!"
"Uhm! … Not important… right now… okay!?" She defects. "Let's go and see if they're there!"
"Fine!" Justin lets the subject go, but he surely is not going to forget about it. He just hopes the ballroom is a good call. They have no time to lose.
TO ALL OF YOU PERCYS OUT THERE. The opinions expressed by Alex and Justin in this chapter about 'Percy' do not reflect the opinions of the author of this story. The characters' opinions are portrayed for comic purpose only. 'Percy' IS a perfectly suitable name, and this author supports and cares for all of you.