A few hours later after dinner was eaten, the girls and 505 kept reading the book while quietly sharing information with their Nunja group chat.
"So, let's go over what we know," Sadie said, laying on the couch against 505 and reading over what she had typed on the group chat and taken pictures of while Melanie sat next to her reading Flug's logbook. "Flug can't measure time even though he's like super-controlling which is weird. Demencia is a nasty floozie with a creepy Black Hat fetish which we all knew already. She is also the queen of the raccoons on this island which is hilarious considering I got them to help me kick her ass. Most of Flug's inventions have failed, except the statue maker and the creepy flower. There are weird wingding symbols all over the place. 505 is a failed science experiment..."
"Bauw?!" 505 replied offendedly sitting up.
"Gone absolutely right," Sadie finished.
"It's not the hands that made you but the Hands guiding them," Melanie reminded 505.
Content for the moment, 505 settled back on the couch.
"Moving on," Sadie said. "Flug can understand what 505 says and he loves him. 505 also has superpowers like regeneration, durability, and good vibes. Very cool I might add."
"Thank you!" 505 typed on his phone.
"Black Hat's messing with Flug and Demencia's memories for some reason," Sadie continued reading. "He is an extremely demanding and abusive bastard who should not be in charge of anyone, but again, we knew that already. Flug and Demencia have major sibling energy. Flug is a mad genius with an over-inflated ego. Demencia is a lizard-woman hybrid he created in his lab. Flug also made all the robots around here, and you can buy them with your soul!"
"What are you freaking out for? I told you that already," Melanie commented from her side of the couch.
"It's still weird to see that posted in an ad like it's nothing," Sadie replied.
"True, I guess I'm just too used to hearing it," said Melanie sadly.
Sadie lifted her head up to give an understanding smile and kept reading, "The hat-drones fly around for security and kill small animals. I'm acquainted with those already. Hat-botlers have brains from former henchmen and clients who couldn't pay their dues. Super messed up."
"I can't help but feel sorry for the Hat-Botlers," Melanie commented. "They've been through so much. I feel bad for just ignoring them now."
"I do too, but they were working with Black Hat and his organization," Sadie said with a shrug. "They were probably bad people."
"I know that," Melanie replied. "But they are still people, Sadie. They're prisoners as much as we are. We need to remember that. Maybe we can help them."
"I doubt it, Mel," Sadie said. "They'd be blown up if they tried to leave. I know how you feel, but the best thing we can do is focus on informing our sisters so we can help ourselves."
Melanie sighed heavily and relented, "You're right. Keep going."
Sadie went back to her phone, "Hat-Sentinels can be set for their scale of evil, but if you set them too high, they go rebellious which is good to know for sabotage purposes…"
"You've been sending all the blueprints too, right?" Melanie reminded her a bit anxiously.
"Aye," Sadie reassured. "I've taken pictures of every bloody page. Don't worry. The Nunjas have all the information that Flug does."
"Your friends are nice people, right?" 505 typed. "They won't tell anyone else about the things you've read in Dad's logbook, right? I don't want Black Hat to hurt Dad or you because you're telling your friends. I don't want your friends to hurt Dad either."
Melanie and Sadie gave each other a knowing look. Neither of them could predict what would happen if the Nunjas fought any of the Black Hat Organization members, especially not to Flug. Neither could predict how this information would be used either. Only that it would benefit their sisters.
Both girls thought for a moment before Melanie finally said, "Our friends are very nice. They're also really good at keeping secrets. We won't tell Flug or Black Hat and neither will they. As long as no one tells, Flug will be fine. Okay?"
505 nodded his head and leaned back on the couch, feeling reassured in the moment.
Sadie looked at Melanie in sadness. Melanie looked back, feeling the exact same way, but neither of them said a word.
"Moving on," Sadie said, looking back at her phone. "Flug has a robot of everything: a camera, lawyer bots, managers, and luchadors. We learned that Flug doesn't get Black Hat. Who does? We found some ancient photographs of what we both agree is your granduncle. And we found some more information about the Black Hat Institute. To get in, you got to be related to an Organization member, break in, or get kidnapped for your potential…"
"And sadly for me, I'm two of the three," Melanie lamented.
"Don't worry. We'll figure something out. Just be patient," Sadie reassured as she leaned over on Melanie instead. "Let's see. Where was I? Wait. I remember. Black Hat is so mysterious that some people in the organization don't even know Black Hat exists which is really strange since he doesn't seem to go out of his way to hide himself. Black Hat doesn't want anyone to know how he and Flug met which is also weird. There are five other Black Hat clones. Flug has a jar of creepy stuff called H3-X. We have more information about their lives in the manor. The fact that they get no days off sucks. We got more information about the mansion. It's a Victorian manor with an interior based on Dr. Who's Tardis physics. We got a blueprint of the house which is extremely useful. I was surprised to see you're not sleeping in the official guest room."
"Me too," Melanie said. "I guess the blueprint was made before they renovated their second guestroom. I'm just grateful it's at the top of the stairs. Otherwise, I'd never find my way through all those damn corridors."
505 nodded in agreement, "Mhmmm."
"Moving on, they record their commercials in the lobby or the basement," Sadie said, looking back at her phone. "They burn their evidence in the fireplace. Black Hat sends clients to Hell and stalk people from his giant ass window. No one's allowed in his room, so we don't know what's there, and frankly, we're afraid of finding out. The kitchen window's always been boarded up. Black Hat drinks poison like wine. Not surprising. Flug and 505 sleep in an airplane and has chopped off the heads of his family members in his family photo. Very surprising. Demencia sleeps in a cage pit, weird but not surprising. I still say we should go in there and prank her."
505 shook his head slowly and dramatically.
"Now, who's the one with a bad idea?" Melanie teased.
"Hey! Your idea was impossible. Mine is hilarious. No need to be sassy," Sadie retorted playfully.
Melanie stuck out her tongue. Sadie did the same while 505 giggled.
"So, are we pranking Demencia or what?" asked Sadie. "Isn't she mean to you, 505?"
505 nodded, showing he was considering it.
"I don't know," Melanie hesitated. "It's not like we can leave this room. How would we do it?"
"I can think of some ideas," Sadie said with a mischievous smile.
"Hmmmm…Look, if you can find some ideas that won't come back to bite us by the time we're done reading this book, I'll consider it," Melanie promised. "But can we finish this first?"
"Deal," Sadie said as she got back to her phone. "Where were we? Oh, yeah. We got a map of Flug's lab that isn't detailed enough to even tell us where we are inside it. We also found out Flug is good at mending clothes which explains how 505 knows how to sew."
"Bawr!" 505 nodded in approval.
"Flug has no life whatsoever," Sadie scrolled through past messages. "505 and Demencia have recipes. Flug loves his airships. There's an unsurprising number of haunted and possessed items here, including the orientation videos, which explains why we all had to carry out that exorcism when you brought in the videos."
"That was not fun," Melanie remembered uncomfortably.
"We learned a good amount about Hat Island without getting a complete map," Sadie complained. "Apparently, villains live here to get away from their problems, and Hatsville has normal residents. Why anyone would choose to live here is beyond me, especially since this island is artificial and boring as hell. I mean, look at this. We have a whole tourist map and the coolest things they have here are the Forest of Shadows and the beaches where you can see sea monsters. I thought my family's country estate in Ireland was boring, but they advertise a tax administration building as a tourist destination. This is madness."
"So far, I've found that the best things on this island aren't listed on the tourist map," Melanie admitted. "The residents here have beautiful buildings. Too bad I can't explore this area because of my granduncle and his goon squad. When I go to the Institute, it's going to be even worse."
A few drops fell from Melanie's eyes. She wiped them away and tried to make herself focus on reading.
Sadie reached up to poke Melanie's face and said, "Hey. Don't give up yet. We've found a goldmine of information. If God's showing us any way out, it'll be through this book. According to this awful tourist map, this lab has a secret exit on another part of the island and the sewer reaches out to the sea. There are still ways we can escape. We just have to keep reading and going over what we've shared to be sure we don't miss anything. Just stay calm. We got this. Alright?"
Melanie tearfully nodded and smiled.
"How about you look at my phone while I read for a while? That way, you get to cuddle with 505 and chill and make sure I didn't miss anything," Sadie suggested. "It's the best of both worlds."
Melanie nodded and took Sadie's phone. She and Sadie swapped places on the couch. Immediately when Melanie sat down, 505 put her on his lap and gave her a hug.
"Thanks, buddy," Melanie said with a smile.
Melanie settled on 505 and unlocked Sadie's phone to keep reading, "We already know about how minions are either brainwashed and tortured into obeying or are turned into Hat-Bots when they're tricked into going to the Black Hat Resort. We got through the page on hats…"
"That reminds me," Sadie said, looking up from the book. "Each hat goes to a different rank of member within the organization, right? So, what hats do your family members have?"
Melanie thought for a moment and replied, "If I remember correctly, I think Mama Muerte has the fedora. Then most of my family on my mom's side have cup hats. Papi has the highest hat, but Black Hat never granted him supernatural powers since he already has powers of his own."
"Your family is very highly ranked in the organization then," Sadie said.
"Unfortunately," Melanie said. "Why do you think I always wanted out? This organization was always my life. I have always wanted something different in the world beyond this place."
Sadie paused thoughtfully and said, "That's what my grandmother wanted too. That's why she left her world."
"What?" Melanie asked, placing the phone aside. "Hold on. I know your family is mostly fairy, but you never told me they came from another world."
"Of course, they do," Sadie explained. "It just never came up. Fairies come from a dimension that is right next to ours called the Faerie Verne or Avalon. It is a dimension that stretches across many countries in Europe. Depending on which country they're located in, they have different rules. In Ireland, our fairy kingdom has many kings and chieftains with queens and nobles always having some sort of snobby scandal or another as my gran put it. She lived with her noble family and couldn't stand it. They were so vapid, conceited, and cold and enjoyed tricking humans foolish enough to deal with them. Fortunately, one day, she met a human, my great-grandfather during the Irish Potato Famine. She saved their community, she used her magic to get him immortality, and they and his family founded our clan."
"That reminds me of something I wanted to ask you," Melanie said. "What kind of fairy are you? I thought you were a puca, but you have powers that typical pucas don't."
"That's because I'm only part puca," Sadie explained. "My gran is full fae, but other kinds of fairies have mixed into our clan too. They intermarried with their children and their children after that and other members of my extended family, too. One of those were pucas, others were selkies, you get the jist. That's why nowadays all human-fairy hybrids are born with a random mix of powers. That's why I can talk to animals, control them with song, shapeshift, fly, heal myself, heal others, and turn my eyes red."
Sadie's eyes flashed red for a moment before turning back to normal.
"So, you're a human-supernatural creature hyper-mutt," Melanie said. "And you're descended from someone who couldn't stand their snobby family. Just another reason why we're the greatest friends ever."
"And me?" 505 insecurely typed on his phone.
"And you too," Melanie said as she and Sadie reached over and pet him.
505 purred happily and Melanie went back to Sadie's phone, "Oh, yeah. We got pictures of the villain's sections. You remember who he mentioned first?"
"Penumbra!" Sadie said with a smile as she flew over to the whiteboard.
On the whiteboard, the girls had written a scoreboard with points for both Penumbra and Miss Heed. The title written above the scores was "Flug's Possible Love Interests."
Penumbra had three points. One because they were already friends. Two because they had apparently had long video chats that he didn't have with other clients. Three because Demencia brought it to his attention, and he was downplaying it.
"So far, we have Penumbra in the lead with three points as a possible love interest for Flug," Sadie explained before gesturing back to Penumbra's score. "So far, Penumbra has no more points from this book."
"But that could change in the pages ahead," said Melanie. "We just have a few more pages to review before we move on."
"Alright, get on to it," Sadie said. "I'll be waiting."
"Okay," Melanie said, going back to reading over the phone. "I didn't realize 'Black Hot' had escaped. I think that Demencia might be crushing on him as hard as she's crushing on Black Hat. I think she should get together with him. Sounds like she has a better chance with him than Black Hat at any rate. I remember Metauro. I saw him and his kids. I didn't realize he was being forced into being an ally. I remember this book saying he was stuck in the center of a labyrinth too. I feel terrible for him."
"Sounds like this place screws up every family," said Sadie.
"You don't know the half of it," said Melanie with a sigh. "Now, we get to the heroes…"
"Oh, yeah, PEACE," Sadie commented derisively, turning to that page. "Flug's right about those guys. They aren't like the Nunjas. They aren't really good people. They just want the attention."
"I struggle to believe that's true for all of them," Melanie protested. "There have to be some good ones."
"Melanie, you heard our older sisters," Sadie chided. "We can't trust anyone in PEACE. They're not good guys. If they were, the Nunjas wouldn't be refusing to combine forces with them. Come on, I mean even Flug says they're bad news."
"I know," Melanie said nervously. "I can believe that most of them are bad, but if they're trying to be heroes, I can't believe that there aren't any good heroes in that organization."
"Really?" Sadie asked with a raised eyebrow, holding up the pages with the heroes on them. "Choose one on this page."
"Hmmm…This is unfair. Uh, Goldheart doesn't seem that bad," said Melanie.
"You're kidding me, right?" asked Sadie incredulously. "The guy who's sworn enemies with Flug and in PEACE's upper ranks? You think he's not bad?"
"I've never heard anything confirmed about him doing anything bad," defended Melanie.
"But we've heard plenty of stories. You just like him because you think he's cute," Sadie teased.
505 looked up with interest while Melanie slightly blushed.
"Don't know what you're talking about," Melanie lied.
"You do so!" Sadie said, tapping her with the book.
"Yeah, so what?" Melanie asked, embarrassedly. "It's not like I'm ever going to see him in person. I think he looks handsome. That's all."
"I knew it," Sadie said, flicking Melanie's head. "You think bad boys are cute."
"I do not!" protested Melanie as she took back the book. "I just don't think all the heroes who work at PEACE are bad. I'll prove it to you by finding a non-evil hero."
"Uh huh," Sadie said sarcastically. "You don't know enough about any of them to know for sure."
"Aha!" Melanie cried out, proudly putting the book down and pointing to a picture of Sunblast. "Do you remember Penumbra's Instagram page? Ever since Sunblast has been with her, he has been reforming. Now, he's a real hero. He saved Penumbra and everything."
Sadie paused and went away from the Nunja's app for a minute to check on Penumbra's Instagram. Sure enough, the pictures of Penumbra and Sunblast growing closer were still there.
505 looked over Sadie's shoulder curiously while Melanie looked over smugly.
"Okay, you're right about one hero," conceded Sadie.
"Ha!" Melanie said, picking up the book and turning back to where they were. "I told you!"
"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Whatever! You were right about one person! Big deal!" Sadie dismissed, switching back to the Nunja app. "Get over yourself, and let's get back to reviewing."
"So salty," Melanie teased.
"Shut up," Sadie retorted. "Okay, we learned that Black Hat can manipulate shadow and about what happened on the last missions, including that orphanages for ghost kids exist. And those are all the pictures we've taken so far."
"Wow, that's over 100 pages of notes," said Melanie. "Good job team. Now, let's move on to the extra information on Miss Heed."
"Oooooh," Sadie said with a devious smile. "This should be interesting. Maybe he'll finally profess his undying love."
"We can only hope," Melanie said sarcastically with a chuckle. "Okay, let's get to reading."
The two girls read over the information. The more they read and the more they learned the more they shook with excitement. But it wasn't until the girls finished reading it and let themselves examine the old photograph that they let their excitement come out in a loud squeal.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" the girls both squealed loudly at once.
"What is the matter?" 505 typed.
"Don't you know what Flug wrote in here?!" Melanie cried hopping off the couch into the air while gesturing to the book.
505 shook his head.
"Only the cutest yet most tragic romantic history ever!" Sadie cried happily flying to the board, ready to write down the tally score for Miss Heed.
Melanie summoned her wings, flew into the air, and read from the book, "Flug knew Miss Heed when she was just Cecilia…"
"One point," Sadie said, marking the tally on the board.
"They studied evil sciences together at the Black Hat Institute…" read Melanie.
"Point two," Sadie marked.
"Cecilia was Flug's only friend when everyone else bullied him…" read Melanie.
"Point three," Sadie marked.
"Cecilia wanted to be seen as special even though she wasn't very good at science and eventually develop her own evil invention. So that inspired Flug to help tutor her until she became second-best in the class and develop his own science…"
"Point four!"
"They texted each other!"
"Point five!"
"Flug escaped from his dormitory and evaded night guards just to spend time with Cecilia after midnight because she said she needed help!"
"Point SIX!"
"He started doing this multiple times a week!"
"Point SEVEN!"
Melanie deflated, "Then Cecilia stole his research, joined PEACE and Goldheart, and broke Flug's heart."
"No points," Sadie said sadly.
"But…" Melanie said, pausing dramatically.
"But?!" Sadie cried.
"Bawr?!" 505 repeated.
"But despite all the horrible things she did, Flug never forgot about her which gives Cecilia the final eighth point! And we all know what that means!" Melanie cried happily.
"Yep! Miss Heed is Flug's most likely love interest! Ding ding ding! We have a winner!" Sadie cheered as she circled Miss Heed's name on the dry erase board and drew a crown on top of it before she erased the tallies and drew the 8.
The girls cheered wildly while 505 looked on feeling amused but a bit confused.
Melanie telepathically turned on the TV, pulled up YouTube, and started playing a love song from Nirvana.
"Heart-Shaped Box?" Sadie asked.
"Yeah, it's fitting," said Melanie. "Flug gave everything to Cecilia. It fits."
"Fine, but I get to choose the next one," Sadie said.
"We should make a playlist," Melanie suggested.
"Oh, my God, we should," Sadie said excitedly.
"I already created a new playlist," said Melanie.
"Based on this photo, I already know what the next song should be," Sadie laughed while grabbing the remote and choosing the next song.
The singer Right Said Fred in the music video started singing, "I'm too sexy for my love…"
No sooner had those words left his mouth than did the girls fall over on the couch laughing.
505 picked up the book and looked at the photo of Miss Heed.
Once the girls calmed down, he typed, "I don't remember much from seeing her. I remember that she has this weird power to mind control people. Flug was affected, but Demencia managed to resist it."
"We know," Sadie said. "Melanie picked up on it when she visited our camp one time. She and Melanie got in a fight, and our Nunja elders made Miss Heed leave."
"She said I wasn't good enough to be a real hero because of my background," Melanie said bitterly.
Unfortunately for them, that was when Flug walked back in and noticed the book sitting open on the couch.
"What are you kids doing?" Flug asked in annoyance as he noticed the book. "Oh, snooping around, I see."
505 hid Sadie's phone. Flug didn't notice. He was focusing on the girls.
"Ohhhhh, Flug, hi there," Melanie said while Sadie flew around him and tried to hide the book. "Did you finish fixing those pipes already? It hasn't been that long."
"I disagree, it's been two hours too long," Flug contradicted.
"Oh…really? Time sure flies when you're having fun," Melanie said, searching for words.
"What fun could you two have possibly been having in that amount of time?" asked Flug.
"Well, we were engaging in a lively debate over who's more likely to be your girlfriend," Sadie said, gesturing to the board while attempting to slide the book away under the couch unfortunately not outside of Flug's notice.
"And was this part of your line of evidence?" Flug asked, reaching forward and grabbing the book, quickly flipping through the pages, and reading it.
"What the-? You were reading my logbook?!" Flug cried.
"Uh…" both girls searched for words.
"How dare the both of you!" He folded the book and roughly poked Sadie in the chest with the book.
"Hey!" Sadie protested. "Stop that! We didn't do anything bad."
"Yeah, we were bored, so we thought we'd entertain ourselves by reading about you and your shady ass life," explained Melanie.
"And what if I had read your personal thoughts?" Flug asked.
"You mean we could actually trust you not to do something like that?" Sadie asked sarcastically.
"It's not that big a deal, Flug," Melanie reassured. "We mostly read about your missions and inventions and stuff. We only learned a few things. Like the fact you can't measure time…"
"And you love flying machines," Sadie added.
"And you made the hat-botlers from the brains of failed minions and clients…" Melanie mentioned.
"And most of your inventions fail…"
"And you probably wiped Demencia's memories when you made her a lizard lady…"
"And you have an ego the size of Ireland…"
"You're friends with Penumbra…"
"You may possibly be crushing on her…"
"That you and Goldheart have been bitter enemies since childhood. And you knew Miss Heed…"
"Back when she was Cecilia and she used you for your invention and then ditched you for Goldheart," Sadie finished with a smirk.
"Do not speak of her," he snarled stepping closer to them.
"Touchy," Sadie said.
Melanie moved in front of her and said, "We're sorry all that happened to you."
"We are?" Sadie asked.
Melanie flicked a small fire in their direction to tell her to shut up.
"Hey!" cried Sadie, flying away to dodge the fire.
"We're sorry for what happened to you," said Melanie. "Even if you were evil, you didn't deserve to be tricked and taken advantage of the way you were. I'm sorry."
Flug looked askance and said, "I'm not looking for pity."
"It's not that," Melanie explained. "It's compassion. Clearly, you didn't have any of that."
Ignoring her, Flug yelled, "And not all my inventions fail! That goes for science and anything else. You're going to fail a bunch of times before you succeed. And maybe…"
Flug paused for a moment before continuing, "Heed and Goldheart were just some of those failures."
"Goldheart has been your nemesis for a long time, so I don't know your history," said Melanie. "But with Miss Heed, I don't think you can call that a failure. She was a fake friend who used you. I've dealt with those before. That was not your fault. If Miss Heed was as nasty back then as she was when she visited our camp, it sounds like she was a wicked, backstabbing bitch."
"Woah, Melanie," said Sadie with a smirk.
"What? You swear all the time," Melanie said defensively.
"I know, I'm impressed," said Sadie, patting Melanie's shoulder.
"I appreciate your sympathy," Flug interrupted.
The scientist opened the book to the page with Cecilia's picture on it and looked at it with a sad sigh.
"So, uh, did you like her?" asked Sadie, flying close to Flug.
"Of course," Flug replied. "We were friends. Or at least, I thought we were."
"You really cared about Cecilia, huh?" asked Melanie, riding on her scythe so she could be close to Flug's eye level.
"I did," Flug admitted.
"Did you like like her?" Sadie pressed.
"Sadie!" Melanie chided. "Shut up!"
"What?! You want to know too!" Sadie retorted.
"That doesn't mean you should ask!" Melanie fired back.
After a brief pause, Flug said, "It's not important now. For now, I can only hope she gets better."
"Where is she now?" Melanie asked curiously.
"Currently in a medical prison," Flug replied.
"That sucks," said Melanie.
"I'm sorry? Do you feel sorry for the woman who tried to hypnotize us and insulted you back at camp?" Sadie asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe a little," Melanie admitted. "You saw her livestream. She looked so pathetic."
"I do, too," Flug added. "The situation she's in is not all her fault. If I had to put a target on someone's chest, I would pick Goldheart. But he'll get what's coming to him soon enough."
"Okay, what are you going to do to him?" asked Melanie.
"Nothing for now," Flug replied. "For now, my priorities are dealing with you two and continuing to run this organization just as Black Hat has instructed."
"And how's that going for ya?" Sadie asked, flying to him with her head upside down.
"In spite of your attempts, things are running smoothly, just had to cut into my five-minute breaks," Flug said.
"Hey! What did we do?" Melanie protested.
"Yeah, we're not the ones who busted the pipes," Sadie backed her up.
"For starters, you shouldn't even be here," Flug pointed at Sadie. "Or did you just conveniently forget that?"
"No, I haven't forgotten," Sadie said with an eye roll. "But you're the one who decided to capture me. You could've just let me go."
"You could let us both go now," Melanie added. "It would make your life so much easier."
"You know I can't do that," reprimanded Flug.
"Well, how else are we going to make your life easier?" Sadie replied with a smirk.
"Listen to what I say, when I say. And right now, I want you to stop looking into my life!" Flug ordered.
"Awww, come on!" Sadie whined. "It's so fun. We don't have anything better to do."
"What else would you have us do?" Melanie asked. "We're bored."
"Have you thought about studying various forms of unstable chemicals?" Flug suggested.
"You want us to study chemistry?" Melanie asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, what do you do for fun?" Flug asked back.
"Write romantic love letters to your lover?" Sadie pushed.
"Sadie, that never works," Melanie said.
"That does give me an idea, how about you two take up writing?" Flug suggested.
"Writing?" Sadie asked skeptically.
I guess that's not too bad of an idea," Melanie admitted. "I have written music before. I also consistently write on a Tumblr blog about how much I hate Black Hat and his Organization. And, I write in a journal and write poetry from time to time. I guess writing stories wouldn't be too much harder."
"Precisely!" Flug encouraged.
"My blog got a lot of good attention especially," Melanie admitted. "People think I am making Black Hat and his organization up, so they praise me for my great fiction when I just keep coming up with more reasons to hate him and this place."
"For now, try writing something from your own imagination," Flug suggested.
"But writing about my hatred feels good," Melanie whined. "I'm at over 2000 items on my list for why Black Hat sucks. I can't stop writing them down. Every time I think I'm done I find another reason that I hate him. On a bad evening, I write down reasons until I go to sleep."
"You don't think you can mix your hatred and your imagination?" asked Flug.
"You've done that in your drawings, Melanie," Sadie reminded her.
"Oh, yeah," Melanie said, digging into her purse, pulling out her miniature sketchbook, and flipping through the pages. "I like to draw my dreams for the future in there."
"Oh, wonderful, like what?" Flug asked hopefully.
"I draw about being a super Nunja with my friends," Melanie said happily flipping through drawings that corresponded with what she was talking about. "And God banishing Black Hat to the pits of hell forever never to return! I use my imagination for both of those, but I like mixing my hatred in when I imagine Black Hat's contorted face as he screams in agony!"
"I think you'll find that counterproductive, he rather likes pain," Flug pointed out.
"Shhhh," Sadie chided. "The drawings represent Melanie's dreams for the future so let her use her imagination."
Flug sighed, "Nevertheless, you at least have something to do besides causing trouble."
"If I write a letter to my parents, will you send it?" Sadie asked excitedly.
"Would you send a letter I wrote for Miss Heed?" Melanie asked.
"The only letter we'd send to your parents is a ransom one. And no one will be talking to Heed!" Flug fired back at each girl.
"Boo!" Both girls cried at once.
"Too bad!" Flug mocked.
"Why do you have to revert back to being a jerk?!" Melanie cried.
"Yeah, is it a job perk?" Sadie asked before noticing. "Hey, that rhymed."
"Maybe we should write poetry about Flug," suggested Melanie.
Flug waved off, "Go ahead. It'll keep you out of my hair, so I'm happy."
"You could write poetry about us too," Melanie suggested.
"Poetry isn't really one of my strong suits," Flug admitted. "Besides, it's supposed to keep you two occupied."
"If you really want to keep up occupied, you should take us out," Sadie suggested. "When I was hiding, I saw a lovely local bakery we should try. It had a cafe with it too."
"Holy crap!" Melanie said excitedly. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? We should totally go! Please, Flug?!"
"No!" cried Flug. "One of you is a prisoner! Black Hat would kill me!"
"Wait, aren't we both prisoners?" Melanie pointed out.
"You're just furthering my point," Flug retorted.
"You had a point?" Sadie asked sassily.
"Yeah, what was your point again?" Melanie asked.
"My point is that, if either of you go anywhere unsanctioned, Black Hat would tear me apart," Flug explained annoyedly.
"Oh, gotcha, but can we at least leave this room?" Sadie asked hopefully.
"No," Flug answered simply.
"Could you do something with us?" Melanie asked. "We could sit down and write poetry together. Besides, we don't know where to find pens and paper."
"I can help," 505 finally typed after silently for the past several minutes. "I'll find some pens and notepads for you so we can all write poetry."
"Yeah!" both girls cheered.
"Wait, buddy, I never said…HEY!" Flug cried as the girls pushed him to the couch.
"Come on," Melanie pleaded. "Write poetry with us. Please?"
"Yeah, it was your idea," Sadie reminded him.
"That doesn't mean I want to write," Flug complained. "I've got things to…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"
The girls looked down into the dark hole that opened before them and sucked Flug into its darkness. The hole only remained for a second before it disappeared leaving no trace of it having ever been there.
"I guess that means Black Hat's back," Melanie said with a shrug. "What do we do now?"
"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot to tell you," Sadie said excitedly. "I adjusted the choreography for Tiny Dancer. Want to watch my dance?"
"Again?" Melanie asked with a playful eye roll. "Haven't you redone this dance about a dozen times already?"
"Don't be a hater," Sadie retorted, pulling her to the couch. "Come on and watch already."
Melanie sighed in fake exasperation as she and 505 settled down on the couch again to watch Sadie dance.