by S. R. TABONE
“And that is?” Little Jewel asked.
“Olivia failed to the strike the last bell and therefore the Island is still there.” Morning-star explained. “But then there’s another possibility.” It occurred to Morning-star.
“Well?...Spit it out.” Little Jewel said.
“Two possibilities in fact.” Morning-star worked out. “One, that Olivia fulfilled her mission or two, that they were all captured before she was able to.”
“The last possibility sounds awful. Kirsten said. “I wish we could find out what happened to our Ma and Da.” She added.
“Who’s Rex?” Nicole asked. “Is he the keeper of dragons?”
“I think his the bad guy Nicole.” Kirsten said in a low voice.
“I’d like to get my hands around his neck and kill him!” Nicole shouted.
“She has her mother’s spirit” Morning-star said to Little Jewel.
“What goes on in the Dark Bells Castle on the island?” Kirsten asked.
“It’s advertised as a reforming foundation for children. It had been built five hundred feet above sea level on the hilltops of the island. Deep below the hills are the tombs of dragons, monsters and some of the greatest pirates that’d ever existed throughout the history of the world. Students of the foundation, children like Nathan were taught advanced science. Only the most gifted humans were permitted to live there.” Morning-star said.
“Those children deemed tech geek enough to be accepted were typically aged around 7. They’d find out they were there to learn how to design and operate spaceships. Most of the children who’d been taken to the Dark Bells Foundation were shocked and distressed once they’d understood they’d never be able to return home.” He explained.
“They cried in anguish and just couldn’t understand what was happening to them. Their parents, aunties, uncles, and guardians just like Alex lead them to believe that the journey by helicopter to Vonberg Island was going to be a flying dragon spotting adventure, part of their Hawaiian holiday.” Little Jewel said.
She continued. “The children who arrived on Vonberg were admitted into the care of Headmaster, Brutus Rex Barbatus. Despite the children’s guardians trying to assure them they’d return home one day, this was far from the truth. On the first day at the Castle, Rex informed the children about the true reality of their situation which was that Dark Bells was to be their new home for good. He lectured the children about the reasons why they deserved to consider Dark Bells as their true home.”
“Of course for all intents and purposes, the Dark Bells Foundation existed to transform those that yearned for more. It was there to educate those dear souls who’d felt their lives were empty, children who didn’t fit into the normal cycle of everyday family and school life.” Morning-star explained.
“Dark Bells was there to teach them how to design and operate spacecraft, how spaceflight works and how to support space stations. It was there to inspire them to advance their computer skill. To empower them so they could master the advancements in space travel. Headmaster, Rex—as he was known to the children—controlled the children using genetically modified, memory altering plant extracts he made into pills and forced the children to take. He also used mind control powers. Morning-star said.
“You mean a bit like how old men forget themselves after they drink whisky?” Nicole asked.
“What do you know about that?” Kirsten asked Nicole.
“Haven’t you seen Mr. Peters wondering around the Highlands as if he’d lost his way?” Nicole said.
“I guess so.” Kirsten said. “And where did Rex get his mind control powers from?” She asked.
“The source of his powers seeped up into the Castle and surrounding hilltop areas within gases. Eternal fires could also be seen blazing from various cracks in the ground. The gases emanated from the caves that held the tombs of dying and decaying dragons, monsters and pirates. These caves were located 6 hundred feet beneath the charcoal coloured hilltops, about 100 feet below sea level.” Morning-star explained.
“Sounds like a horrible place to be.” Nicole said.
“But the children lived in the Castle and not in the tombs.” Kirsten said looking at Morning-star.
“Mrs. Taylor and parents like her couldn’t cope with their children’s odd behaviours. They felt they might end up being an embarrassment and burden upon them. Your grandmother, Bella disagreed with Alex and did try to persuade him not to take Nathan to Dark Bells, but in the end she went along with her husband’s decision to help Mrs. Taylor give up on her son.” Morning-star explained.
“Eight years had past since Nathan had been admitted to Dark Bells, he was then aged 15. Your granddad was concerned other neighbours might find out he’d helped Mrs. Taylor abandon her son and that this news might be leaked to the local newspapers.” Morning-star said.
“Your granddad wasn’t getting any younger. He wasn’t as fit as he used to be. He knew it was only a matter of time before he needed the help of Mrs. Taylor’s son who he’d hoped might find a well paid job as a result of his education at Dark Bells. He’d hoped that Nathan might one day thank him by supporting not only his mother but him too. As tough as it was for your granddad, he knew the time for him to retire would come. It was no use pretending he could manage to carry on working beyond the age of 70 and besides, the fish factory didn’t want slow old folk on their production line. By that time Mr. Parker hoped Nathan would be mature and sensible enough to look after him as well as his mother. He believed Nathan could earn a decent wage after his time at Dark Bells.” Morning-star explained.
“The Parkers’ biggest nightmare was the thought of living the rest of their lives in complete poverty, not being able to afford healthy food and not being able to pay for their heating bills. They were already heavily in debt. The last thing they needed was debt collectors banging on their door. Such worries caused the Parkers’ sleepless nights.” Morning-star said.
“Your grandparents were very poor.” Little Jewel commented.
“Yes, and of course, tax avoidance was your granddad’s other secret that worried him. It wouldn’t be so straightforward if it came to him accounting for all that metal he’d weighed in at the scrap metal yard over the years. Sure, Mr. Parker was on friendly terms with the metal dealers though he often wondered whether they could be trusted. He didn’t know how long it would be before they turned against him and reported him to the authorities. The last thing he needed was to be investigated for tax evasion. Something had to be done Mr. Parker thought. He’d have to come up with a plan to get out of the mess his family was in. Mr. Parker had to do something so that no one would be able to question how he’d been avoiding tax or how he’d help Mrs. Taylor hand over their son to Rex at Dark Bells.” Morning-star explained.
“What a mess our granda and grandma were in.” Nicole said. They could hear Doris calling the twins. It was getting late and though they wanted to hear more of the story hey had to get back to the cottage to get ready for bed.
“We’ll be back tomorrow.” Nicole said.
“Bye and thank you.” Kirsten said. The twins rubbed the unipegs soft noses and left the barn.
Chapter 2: Message in a Dream
Over the next few months the unipegs continued to tell the twins the whole story including all the details about the six battles they’d fought in. The background to the first battle stared like this.
It was a Saturday morning and the sun was rising upon the tower blocks overlooking the poor part of Blackpool. Mr Parker woke to the sound of his neighbour’s children from the flat above shouting, banging and crashing doors and furniture and their Chihuahua dog yapping. This noise set off the two Pit Bull Terriers burking in the flat below. Mr Parker’s daughter, Olivia was singing and playing at her keyboard piano.
She was 12, had long auburn hair done up in a ponytail. Her eyes were bright blue. She wore a navy blue skirt and leather shoes, a purple woollen cardigan her mother had knitted. It covered a cream top that matched th
e colour of her tights.
On that morning Bella was busy having a shower. Normally she’d be preparing the families breakfast that usually consisted of boiled eggs, porridge with Tesco value strawberry jam, toast with butter and half a lemon the family used to squeeze over some mackerel, cheap orange juice and tea.
Someone was calling Mr. Parker’s mobile phone and there was a knock at the door. Olivia looked through the keyhole. She never opened the door to strangers. She saw two Jehovah Witnesses holding their leaflets. They came from the Kingdom Hall down their road were on their weekend rounds.
Mr. Parker stood beside the living room window that was full of condensation, the water lingered between the window panes. He looked out as sun’s ray reflected directly off of the window. The heat from the sun’s ray warmed his body. He tried to blot out all the activity going on around him. In that moment he remembered Nathan. The Parkers’ had become accustomed to not having their neighbour’s son coming around to visit Olivia. The two had been good friends and got on really well. Bella used to think that the two might marry one day.
Mr Parker thought how lucky he was to have Olivia, a child who was much better behaved than he’d ever known Nathan to be. Certainly it was a fact that Mrs Taylor couldn’t cope with looking after him. Mr Parker also thought about who might bring in an income once he retired. He honestly couldn’t visualise Olivia wanting to find a job so soon. She was way too artsy. He’d hoped that Nathan might return the favour he’d done for him and his mother, Mrs Taylor in making sure he was properly educated.
According to Bella, the Dark Bells article claimed that all of their students would leave as highly intelligent and disciplined adults that could easily find well paid jobs. The article failed to mention that no student had ever left Dark Bells even after reaching adulthood.
It was true that Nathan had been behaving strangely. He was too quirky. He didn’t even get on with the other children at his old school. The teachers had been exasperated with him and simply couldn’t cope with his inward behaviour. Yes, Mr. Parker thought, we did the right thing for Mrs. Taylor. Yet something inside Mr Parker, something like a catchy song was fighting against the guilty thoughts he was experiencing in wanting to forget about Nathan for good.
But what if, Mr Parker thought, just was if his Nathan had been reformed and wasn’t as odd as he used to be…? No. He dismissed the idea. Nathan had been way to strange to have changed within the eight years he’d lived at Dark Bells. Besides he wasn’t even old enough to look for a job. It would be at least another four years he concluded before they’d hear any news from Rex about him.
Mrs Taylor was up to her ears in debt. She’s taken out lots of loans and borrowed money on her credit cards to pay for Nathan’s education over the years. The payments were transferred from Mrs Taylor’s bank account via direct debt and paid into the Dark Bells bank account. She was also paying back the money she owed Mr Stokes, as well as the very high interest he charged her. Stokes considered his debtors to be the lowest of the low, the scum of the earth.
About half of the money people like Mrs Taylor paid Dark Bells went to Professor Habetowski to support the Inter-Life Works laboratory in Austria. The Professor was Headmaster, Brutus Rex Barbatus’ brother. The funds supported his experiments in creating new creatures for Rex to use. These included dragons and various monsters formed into being inside the Creation-Machine. Rex used the creatures to protect Dark Bells from intruders. The rest of the money went to the Dark Bells Foundation itself. It was spent on supplies of food, drinks and the normal things children need, including clothes and of course lots of chocolate and sweets.
Almost eight years had past since Mr. Parker left Nathan at Dark Bells. He hadn’t heard anything from Rex about Nathan. And Professor Habetowski hadn’t sent him any information. In any case, the Professor wasn’t permitted to communicate with any of the children’s family members or guardians. Rex had instructed his brother to only deal with the payments.
However two years after Nathan’s admission to Dark Bells, Professor Habetowski sent the Parker’s four bright white six month year old unipegs as gifts for admitting their son to Dark Bells. Well it was more of a way for the Professor to show off his creation abilities to the wider world. If Rex ever found out he’d be furious not only with his brother but with the Parkers’ for accepting such gifts. Their wings were not fully developed and they were not able to talk.
Tony Stokes had a contact called China Joe who lived in a Victorian house with a disused stable at back leading to an alleyway. China Joe was a quiet, kind pensioner always willing to do anyone a favour. He was about 5 foot 4 inches, had white hair on the sides of his head that stuck up like antennas communicating with another dimension. The top of his head was bald. He dyed the little hair he did have as well as his eyebrows black from time to time. Well sometimes when he didn’t have any hair dye so he’d use black shoe polish instead. He wore black, grey or blue leggings and short socks often pink with yellow stripes. He wore t-shirts and to keep warm puffy bomber style jackets. If he ever wore a shirt it was short sleeved and he’d always cut off the collar using a pair of scissors. China Joe’s father had been from Malaysia, he was a seaman. He’d met Joe’s mother when a ship he worked on docked in the Grand Harbour of Valletta on the Island of Malta.
The idea that Mr Parker could collect Nathan nagged at his conscious. He remembered Rex warning him that if any helicopter entered the Vonberg Island airspace without authorisation, he would unleash fearsome dragons to breathe fire on the aircraft, and pull it into pieces over the sea. The airspace was a five miles radius around the island. His idea of travelling to the island to try and free Nathan from the Dark Bells Castle was a brave but foolish one.
But what if it were possible? Mr Parker reflected as he sat at the kitchen table, reading the weekend tabloid and waiting for his family to join him for breakfast. He couldn’t afford to pay a gang of tough guys that might enjoy the idea of taking on hundreds of fire breathing warrior minded dragons as well as hideous bone crushing monsters.
He visualised himself coming away from Dark Bells triumphant. He imagined the battle, how along with his gang he’d defeat the hundreds of dragons and other creatures. They’d be dead and injured sprawled all over the island, blood squirting, and guts exposed by the slash of swords. He could see himself freeing Nathan then sitting in a gold painted carved carriage being carried through the sky by the four sparkling white unipegs he’d hidden for years. He mused on as he picked up a teaspoon and cracked the shell of his boiled egg.
Just think what the neighbours would say if the Parkers’ left their street in a golden carriage drawn by four white winged unipegs, two at the front and two holding them up at the back. Mr Parker could visualise it, he could see such creatures spreading their wings and flying high up into the sky towards the island.
But there was a problem with the unipegs’ wings. They were underdeveloped. During the process of creating them in his scientific laboratory in Austria, Professor Habetowski had rushed the procedure. He had miscalculated the number of feathers each unipeg would need on each of their wings. He had entered the wrong details into the Creation-Machine. It was unusual for Professor Habetowski to create creatures other than mainly dragons and various monsters for his brother Rex to use on Vonberg Island.
There’s no doubt that Professor Habetowski enjoyed experimenting with the Creation-Machine. Their horns came out okay, long and as sharp as warrior swords. Those unipeg creatures where real battle ready beasts, their bodies strong as steel, they could run faster than any earthly horse had ever run and they never became breathless. The greatest thing of all wasn’t even that they could talk, oh no since most of the creators could…it was that their minds were connected in thought. Each unipeg knew just what the others were thinking. Can you just imagine that they actually shared their thoughts as if they were of one mind? If only Professor Habetowski had taken more care in his work the four unipegs would have already been able to fly.
To be named was the closest to humanity most of the creatures were ever going to feel since as soon as Rex had control over them he’d make sure they really knew what they were created for. Whereas Professor Habetowski treated them with respect and wanted to keep them like pets, Rex had more or less already planned out how each would serve him and Dark Bells.
After their breakfast the Parkers went to their local park. It was a bright but windy summer morning and Olivia had brought a kite along. As she was busy untangling the strings on a hill Mr Parker talked with Bella about Nathan. She laughed nervously thinking it wrong to have such thoughts especially after what Rex had warned. When she realised her husband was serious—though she didn’t think it could ever be possible—she thought that if anyone could free Nathan her husband was a man who would at least try. But just how he’d go about it was something Bella and not even Alex himself could work out.
That evening Bella reminded Alex about what Rex warned. He said that if they ever returned to try and take Nathan away from Dark Bells they’d die. He had given them two pill bottles containing small pills he’d made from purple plants cultivated in the gardens of the Dark Bells Castle. Small bee-like flying dragons hovered around the plants preventing flying inspects from eating the buds and the buds that had flowered purple. There were also lizards with wasp stinging tails and heads like frogs that ate up warms and other crawling insects on the earth that were attracted by the bright green stems of the plants. One pill bottle contained blue coloured pills and the other pink pills. Whenever the Parkers remembered Nathan, Rex told them to take one of the pills, a blue pill for Alex and pink pill for Bella. They did as he’d advised and each time they remembered and ate a pill they’d forget all about Nathan. That night before bed they each took a pill.