Chapter Eleven
1357 Words
I WAS ecstatic.
“Sirius!” I cried, as I sprinted forward and hugged him. “You are alive!”
He was startled by my emotional response – I swear it was a completely spontaneous action – and it showed by his look of wide-eyed innocence. What was running through his mind at that moment, I wonder? Oh well, it didn’t matter very much. I was just too glad to see him okay.
“How did you cheat death?” I asked anxiously. “We saw Drakev fry you.”
“I am a telepathic freak, remember?” he reminded me with a smile. By then he had recollected himself and he reciprocated with a warm hug. “What you and Drakev saw back there was an illusion. In actual fact, I was hiding behind the bushes. And there I waited until he left the scene. Following that, I went looking for you guys. I had a hunch you would be around here.” He paused then did a ringmaster routine. “Well, animals, insects, and birds of the forest, to prove that I was right, may I present to you, the lovely Alison and the witchy Kyra.”
His antic had me giggling. I looked at Kyra. She was rather quiet all this while. At last she said somewhat dryly to Sirius, “You are late.” But I caught a happy smile flickering across her face – the swine!
She then climbed down the cleaved bank and stepped into the knee-deep waters. “Best we be on our way,” she said.
“Err … be on our way means now?” Sirius inquired.
“Yes.”
“But I just got here. Can I take a breather at least?”
“No.”
Realizing he would not get the better of an argument with the witch, Sirius spoke no further and followed her and me to wade across the stream.
After we had crossed, we turned to a small path and went into the shadow of the forest, the ground getting higher as we hurried along. It was here that Sirius decided to switch on his vocal chords again. “Kyra, you do know Drakev and his men are waiting for us at the Villa, don’t you?”
“Of course, that is to be expected,” answered the witch who was a few paces ahead of us.
“Then why are we still heading there, for heaven’s sake?” he asked, exasperated. “You want us all to get killed?”
“I have a plan.”
“Ah finally, a plan, how astute of you!” he said in a rather sarcastic tone. “And when are you going to share your wonderful plan with Alison and me?”
“Later,” Kyra said in her usual stiff manner.
Sirius frowned. He then turned to me and softly asked, “Why is she so … so …” He couldn’t find the word.
“Serious?” I interjected, keeping my voice down as well.
“Yeah, yeah,” he nodded, “that’s it, so serious.”
“You know, I asked myself the same question earlier.”
“And?”
“I think she is –” I paused then made a gesture similar to the one he’d made over Old Al’s clowning back at the waterfall.
Sirius chuckled, giving me two thumbs-up.
“I saw that,” said Kyra; she wasn’t even looking behind her.
Sirius and I shrank. Holy cow, she has eyes in the back of her head too? I thought.
At last we arrived at the foot of the hill. Stars glinted through the pale roof of quivering leaves and the round moon looked like a porcelain knob. Disease-inflicted trees, bent and twisted, engulfed a faint gravel path leading to the back of Ng Chan Villa. Crows were perching in flocks on the branches, their devilish eyes staring at us. And the air stunk from the bird droppings on the ground.
“This place is eerie,” I commented, as I looked about us in trepidation.
“It is supposed to be so as to scare away unwanted visitors,” Kyra replied.
We were about to climb the ascent when Sirius rushed forward and blocked us.
“Stop! Stop!” he whispered, an anxious look on his face. “Drakev’s men – I can sense their presence. They are further up behind the trees.”
“How many?” the witch whispered back.
“Twenty.”
“Is Drakev with them?”
Sirius lingered for a short while, putting both his hands on his temple like he was concentrating. Then he said, “No.”
“Can you confirm it?”
“Affirmative. Drakev has a superior and sharp intellect. I should know; I’d probed his mind before. What we have here are simpletons and morons.”
Kyra stared at him, a teasing grin spread across her face.
Feeling mighty uncomfortable, Sirius instinctively looked down at his pants; he must have thought that the zipper had come undone. When it was not, he finally asked her, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You asked me about my plan,” she said casually. “Well, you are it.”
Sirius was perplexed. So was I – what is Kyra talking about?
“You have telepathic powers,” explained the witch. “Use them to send the men to slumber land. Once you’ve done that, the last stretch of our journey to the Villa will be like a stroll in the park.”
Sirius raised an eyebrow. “But I have never mind-controlled so many people before,” he grumbled.
“Well, there is always the first time for everything.”
“You can do it, Sirius,” I encouraged him. “Just have faith.”
He relented, putting his hands on his head once more. Long moments passed. I could see beads of sweat glistening on his brow. At last he opened his eyes, sucked in a lungful of air then blew it out. “It’s done,” he announced, looking quite pleased with himself.
Kyra nodded. Following that, we took off, the witch in front while Sirius and I, stumbling behind, tried to keep up with her. Damn, she was fast! Also, she had a way with crows. With a wave of her hand, she quieted them before they could start cawing.
We ran past the sleeping beauties, and reached the tall concrete wall of the derelict mansion soon after. There, we finally halted and darted our eyes about us. We saw no one. The hilltop was dark and silent.
After a short rest, Kyra turned to me and with a smile, a half-smile actually, she said, “This is the furthest that Sirius and I can go, Alison. You have to enter the Villa by yourself. Go straight to the lobby, turn to your left to the last room of the passageway. That is where Madeline is.”
“What if Drakev is there too?” I asked nervously.
“Let’s pray that he isn’t,” Kyra said in a gentle tone.
“That’s not a very reassuring answer,” I retorted. Then turning my attention to Sirius, I asked, “Can you please check whether Drakev is in the Villa with your powers?”
“Sorry, I can’t – no man can shatter or penetrate the shield, physically or otherwise,” Sirius clarified. “Oh, stop worrying. Remember what you told me just now – have faith? Drakev will not be there.”
Yeah, yeah, Sirius is right, I thought. Everything has been going very smoothly since we left the waterfall. Why should there be trouble now? In fact it is preposterous to even have that notion. I am being silly.
If that’s so, how come I was still getting that fluttery feeling in my stomach?
Crap.
- Writer
