Chapter Six
769 Words
WHEN I woke up, I was lying flat on the grass. Sirius was bending over me, his face looking rather haunted.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a palpitating tone. “Oh, please say you are okay. I thought you were going to die when I saw those lightning bolts strike you.”
“I … I thought so too,” I stammered. My pain had gone away but I was still feeling a bit under the weather. I glanced at his watch: it was 10:14 A.M. I had been out cold for only a few minutes. “What happened after that?Where are we?”
“We are somewhere inside the woods,” he said as he helped me to sit up.“I was so afraid that the six bikers might know another way to cross over the abyss that I carried you as far in as possible and we ended up here. But thank God they didn’t and they left soon after. What’s going on, Alison? And who is that man with the cane? The way he laughed and unleashed those bolts of lightning intermittently, he seemed to be toying with you.”
I studied Sirius for long moments, my mind searching for the appropriate words to begin. It was not easy. I mean, I was what he saw before him, nothing more. I lost my memory and needed to find myself. Furthermore I couldn’t even make head or tail of my arrival in Ipoh, feeling obligated to a man who had been dead for over fifty years. But he saved my life. He deserved an explanation. In the end, I decided to come clean and tell him what I knew.
Sirius went silent after that. He looked thoughtful. I guessed he needed some time to digest my story. I took a bottle from his knapsack and had a drink; I was getting thirsty from all that talking. At last he spoke: “So it appears we still don’t have much info about Drakev and The Fellowship. The only thing we’re sure of is that they don’t want you to set foot in Ng Chan Villa.What big secret lies hidden there to induce them go on a killing spree, I wonder?”
“I don’t know, and I’m sorry that I got you into this mess,” I said in an apologetic tone. “So I’d understand if you wish to wash your hands of this matter. You can take my bike and go back to the hotel. Don’t worry about me,I’m good here.”
However, Sirius was having none of it. “Oh no, Alison, you’re not leaving me out of this one. We’re going to see this to the end together!”
“But why, Sirius? What’s in it for you?”
“Well, err, life is not merely to exist, we have to live it, you know,”he replied, sounding rather philosophical. “And right now I’m having the most exciting time of my twenty-eight years of oh-so-dull-existence.” There was a pause. “Go back? You must be joking!”
I was not fully convinced. I could sense he was still hiding something.Replacing the bottle then looking at him in the eye, I said, “Come on, level with me, Sirius, like I to you. What is your real reason for wanting to take me to Ng Chan Villa?”
Another pause. He began to rock slightly, his fingers tapping on the ground as if it were a computer keyboard; he seemed kind of nervous.
“Ah gee, must I tell you?” he said at last. “It’s … well, quite embarrassing.”
“Tell me what?” I asked, eager to hear him out.
However, before Sirius could spill the beans, we sprang to our feet. Our sharp ears picked up the faint sound of motorbike engines. Drakev and his gang had managed to find a way to cross over the abyss after all.
“Let’s get out of here!” cried Sirius, shouldering his knapsack and running further into the woods.
This time I agreed wholeheartedly.
“Do you know where we are going?” I asked, following close behind him.
“Yeah, a place called Dead Man’s Waterfall.”
He won a scowl from me. Dead Man’s Waterfall? I didn’t like the sound of this name.
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