Book 1: The Crown Prince (The Kid Emperor of Occultoria)

by Jason W. Chan

  Chapter 10 - Hungry Ghosts at Glutton’s Cafe

  After penetrating the force field and feeling the itching sensation, the three of them entered Province 1: Purgatorio.

  They were standing underneath the claw-like branches of cluster after cluster of oak trees. The wind blew and the branches seemed to turn into claws, swiping at the group.

  Max stood there and gained his bearings.

  The first thing he noticed was a statue in the clearing just ahead.

  The statue was of a figure that barely resembled a woman. Her torso was a tree trunk. Her arms and legs were tree roots. Her skin was a decaying brown. She had a purifying crown on her head. At the very top of the crown was what looked like a miniature black cherry tree. She was wearing a regal-looking brown robe and holding a ruby scepter that resembled a tree.

  She had creepy red eyes, a huge nose and an even bigger mouth. It looked like her face was melting. Her hair was a pile of yellowish-brown roots.

  At the bottom of the statue was the inscription, “Bow down to Queen Arbora! Celebrate our Independence!”

  From the inscriptions, Max learned two things. One: the Queen was very proud and demanded absolute submission from her spirits in Purgatorio. Two: it was going to be very difficult to persuade her to rejoin the Empire.

  As though confirming his thoughts, from her spot on his shoulder, Ariel whispered, “Now that the Queen has had a taste of independence, she’s not going to want to give it up.”

  “So what do we do?” said Max.

  “She has a weakness,” replied the cat.

  And then, the cat summarized Queen Arbora’s background story, emphasizing the fact that she hated men.

  “So you see,” said Ariel. “Not a single man has shown her compassion throughout her lifetime. That’s where you should hit her.”

  “Show her compassion?” asked Max.

  The cat nodded. “And if that doesn’t work, she also has a physical weakness.” Ariel pointed at the statue. “You see those feet that look like roots?”

  Max nodded.

  Ariel said, “She’s a plant and all plants are vulnerable to their roots being burned. If she doesn’t go voluntarily, you might need to burn her roots with your Glove of Vulcan.”

  Max looked at his glove. Did he have the heart to burn the Queen for the good of the Empire?

  Ariel interrupted his thoughts. “Do you remember seeing the Imperial Puzzle?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Once she submits her region to your rule, you’ll need her piece of the puzzle to bring back to the capital. Only then will she be fully subdued.”

  Max nodded. “OK, let’s do this! Where’s the Queen?”

  “In her castle,” replied the cat.

  “How do we get there?” asked Max.

  “I don’t know,” said the cat.

  Eddie, who had been silent all this time, raised one hand. “Uuhhhh...what’s that over there?”

  They were now standing on the edge of the forest, staring off into a vast brown field just ahead. A wooden building stood in the middle, glowing an eerie green.

  “I don’t know,” said Max. “But we should get out of here.”

  He glanced around nervously. Maybe it was the wind, but the branches of the trees seem to be reaching out to them, even trying to grab them.

  Max’s bracelet to began to glow a golden hue. He knew that meant danger was coming soon. He also knew that since the entire province was dangerous to him, the bracelet wasn’t going to be much help.

  All of a sudden, a branch brushed Eddie’s head.

  The dragon spirit turned around.

  Like a hand, the branch now tried to grab him.

  Eddie ducked out of the way, but then the neighboring branches all came to life. The branches all flickered out at the group en masse.

  Max tried to dodge them but he was caught by a branch, which lifted him up.

  “Use your fire power!” cried Ariel, swiping at an incoming branch. “Roots are afraid of fire. They burn easily.”

  His legs dangling in the air, Max raised his Glove of Vulcan and pointed it toward the branch. “Flamma!”

  The fire singed the branch, which quickly retreated, dropping him back onto the ground in the process.

  The three of them hurried out of the grasp of the branches, toward the field.

  As they raced away, they heard a screeching sound behind them.

  Max looked around. From the Haunted Forest, hordes of Green Gremlins were zooming toward them.

  It reminded him of being chased by the same ghosts when he was riding his griffin on the way to the Imperial Capital.

  Soon, the sky was filled with the shrieking of the Green Gremlins as they descended on the group. They looked like clusters of locusts as they flooded the air.

  Max turned around, raised his Glove and shouted, “Flamma!”

  Fire shot out at the targeted assailants, who immediately vanished in flurries of green smoke and shrill cries of pain.

  Eddie transformed into his dragon form and breathed fire on the ghosts, but there were too many of them.

  They were overwhelmed.

  “Into the cottage!” shouted Max.

  The three of them scrambled toward the cottage, which had a sign just above the door: Glutton’s Cafe.

  When they got to the door, they tried to push it open, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Harder!” cried Ariel.

  Sweat soaking his face, Max pushed on the door.

  It creaked open slightly, but not all the way.

  “Harder!” cried Ariel again.

  A small group of Green Gremlins was now shooting towards them.

  Max turned around and held out his Glove toward the wailing spirits. “Flamma!”

  But nothing came out.

  Exerting all the effort her tiny and fat cat body could manage, Ariel grunted, “You’ve run out of fire for now. The Glove needs time to recharge.”

  So Max whirled around, his heart beating nonstop. He knew it was life or death now. If he was killed by his enemies before he had even been crowned emperor, not only would he leave behind no legacy, but his people would continue to suffer under the Empress Lilith, whenever she returned to take control of the reins of government.

  “On the count of three!” Max shouted. “We push with all our might!”

  “One,” he said. “Two!” Three!”

  The three of them hurled themselves at the door, which finally began to open all the way.

  From behind them, the Green Gremlins shrieked incessantly as they dove toward their preys.

  Just as Max felt the unbearable cold of a gremlin’s hand on his neck, the door was shoved open and all three of them tumbled into the cottage.

  The Green Gremlins banged onto the door, but they were kept at bay. Soon, they all went away when they realized they couldn’t enter.

  Disoriented, the three of them took some time to examine their new surroundings.

  Inside the cottage was what looked like a restaurant. There were six tables in the room and on top of the tables were plates and glasses and cutlery. On the plates were steaming of piles of delicious sandwiches.

  The atmosphere was dark and dim, almost romantic. Candles were set at every table.

  Eddie’s eyes grew big.

  “I’m hungry,” he said, eyeing the sandwiches. “Where are we?”

  Suddenly, music began to play. Someone was strumming the beautiful chords of a harp. The music was soothing, lulling the listeners into a pacified mood.

  They looked straight ahead.

  A scene was materializing out of thin air.

  Right behind the tables, two beautiful young Asian women in very skimpy clothing were strumming harps. They were both wearing green shirts that showed off their flat midriffs and green shorts that revealed smooth long legs. They looked no older than 19. One had a big mole on her cheek.

  Eddie murmured, “They’re beautiful.”

  But Max saw a different scene
.

  To Max, they were not young women. They were pudgy hideous old women with rolls of fat hanging down their necks. They smiled, revealing sharp teeth. They were both wearing way too much makeup, especially with the mascara in their eyes.

  Max said, “Are we seeing the same women here?”

  Eddie frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Those are not beautiful women,” said Max, pointing at the musicians.

  He turned to Ariel. “Do you see what I see?”

  “Fat women strumming harps?” said Ariel. “Oh yeah. These women have clearly put on disguises. Illusions are very common in Purgatorio. We must not fall for their traps. It’s all smoke and mirrors here.”

  “How come Eddie is seeing something else?” asked Max.

  “Eddie sees what he wants to see. Fortunately for us, we see the truth. Do you know why?”

  Max shook his head.

  The cat whispered, “Because of our personalities. Eddie is quite extroverted. You and I are more introverted, and that’s a good thing here in the Supernatural World. Introverted people know themselves and knowing yourself is the first step towards seeing the truth. And you and I see the truth before us.”

  The girls began to giggle.

  The girl with a mole on her cheek pointed toward the table. “Welcome, guests. I’m Gluttonia and this is Avaricia.”

  Avaricia smiled. “Won’t you all have a seat and dig in? The sandwiches are fresh.”

  They both had pleasing, light, airy voices.

  Max remembered what Ariel had told him about all the spirits in Purgatorio.

  Purgatorio is a place for the souls that refuse to depart into the afterlife, for whatever reason. Some died in a state of such extreme emotion that their souls linger on Earth, determined to get another chance at life, even though they never could. They all want something they were never able to get in life. Revenge, fame, wealth, fortune, love. These emotions eventually consume them inside, and all they could think about is getting what they want.

  He wondered what these hungry ghosts wanted. Food?

  Eddie sat down happily, unable to take his eyes off what looked like pretty young girls to him.

  “So what are we having?” he asked.

  A rumble shook the entire room.

  At first, Max thought a storm was coming, but then he realized that the rumblings came from the ladies’ stomachs.

  Ariel whispered in Max’s ears, “These are Hungry Ghosts. They died in a state of such extreme hunger that they’ll never be satiated. They are consumed by their hunger. They’ll eat anything and everything. These are sisters who gorged themselves to death on chicken.”

  Max gestured to Eddie. “Get up. We’re not staying.”

  But Eddie stayed seated. He was actually already eating, gorging himself on the hot open-faced, gravy-drenched turkey sandwiches.

  Max eyed the sandwiches. He saw them for what they really were. They were not sandwiches, but mud and dirt in the shapes of sandwiches.

  He put a hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “Come on, Eddie. As your prince, I’m commanding you to get up.”

  But Eddie sat there still, stuffing his face with food.

  Max turned to the ladies. “Ladies, we’re not here for dinner. We’ve come to speak with your Queen. Where is she?”

  Gluttonia scoffed. “That ugly old hag?” she said, her rolls of neck fat jiggling. “She’s boring. What could you possibly have to say to her?”

  She approached Max, batting her eyes. “You’ll find that Avaricia and I are much more...stimulating.”

  She came a little too close to Max, who got the distinct feeling that she was trying to seduce him.

  She twirled a strand of her long black hair with one finger. “Don’t you think?”

  In the dim lights of the candles, she looked like a crazy old lady.

  Max stared into her old wrinkled face and got a whiff of her bad breath, which reeked of garlic and rotting garbage.

  Cringing, he took a step back. “No, we really have to go.”

  He turned around and tried to turn the doorknob, but it was stuck.

  Gluttonia smirked. “No, you don’t get it. Once you’re in Glutton’s Cafe, there’s no leaving.”

  Max stuck out his chest. “I am Max Jusoy, Crown Prince of the Empire and heir to the throne. I am your liege lord and master. When I say I want to leave, then I will leave. Do you understand?”

  Gluttonia laughed aloud. “We are not taking orders from a puny little boy like you.”

  And then, her expression grew serious. “And now, we’re hungry. It’s dinnertime.”

  The two of them must have transformed into their true selves, because Eddie let out a scream.

  He pointed at the two of them. “Witches!”

  “We’re Hungry Ghosts, you idiot!” snapped Gluttonia. “You guys were unlucky enough to stumble into our lair during feeding time.”

  After they changed into their true selves, other things began to become apparent to Eddie.

  The turkey sandwiches on Eddie’s plate soon disintegrated into mud and dirt.

  Staring at the plates in horror, Eddie began to spit and sputter.

  “Yuck!” he exclaimed, spitting into his hands.

  Max looked around the other tables.

  Something was not right.

  Slumped down at the other tables were corpses of men, women and children. They were all slumped down in various positions, but they all had one thing in common - they were all dead.

  Max recalled that Ariel had said that two things happened when humans wandered into provinces of the Supernatural World: they either appeared on the other side, or they vanished. It meant that they either survived or died. Now, he knew why they vanished.

  With a gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach, Max realized that these victims must have been those poor unfortunate humans that wandered into Purgatorio and then paid the ultimate price. They had all been eaten.

  He asked to the two ghosts, “Have you already eaten today?”

  “Yes,” answered Gluttonia. “But don’t you think we call it Glutton’s Cafe for a reason?”

  Her stomach rumbled loudly, much like thunder.

  “And now,” she said, her eyes glinting. “It’s time to eat again.”

  Max stood up straight, raising his Glove of Vulcan in the air. “Let us out of here or I’ll shoot.”

  He desperately hoped that his Glove had re-charged, or else they were screwed.

  Eddie stood up, a disgusted expression on his pudgy face. “Let us out of here or I’ll breathe fire on you.”

  He tried to transform into his dragon form...but he couldn’t.

  Nothing happened.

  Gluttonia smiled. “You’ve eaten our sandwiches. They neutralize any powers for a few hours.”

  The two ladies raised their hands, flashing their sharp fingernails, and advanced on the group.

  Max shouted, “Flamma!”

  But his Glove must have still been recharging, because no fire came out.

  The cat hopped in front of the two boys and hissed, swiping her claws at the two Hungry Ghosts.

  Avaricia batted the cat away with one foot.

  Ariel went sailing across the room.

  Max clenched his fists and then raised them.

  The two ghosts approached.

  Max took a swing at them, but his fists were caught by Gluttonia,

  Gluttonia laughed at him. “You’re so puny it makes me sick.”

  Avaricia smirked. “Now it’s time for you tasty morsels to wait in the dungeon while we prepare our seventh meal tonight.”

  They grabbed Max and Eddie, who struggled and resisted, but the ghosts were too strong.

  The two spirits hauled the two boys and the cat into a tiny dungeon area, right next to the kitchen.

  Then, they locked the jail cell.

  From inside the jail, Max grabbed onto the iron bars. “Let us out of here! As your sovereign lord, I command you to.”

&
nbsp; “They don’t seem to respect your authority, my lord prince,” said Eddie.

  Just a couple feet away, Gluttonia was mixing some kind of bubbling liquid with a ladle in a big cauldron.

  As steam rose into the air, she smiled, revealing sharp, carnivorous teeth.

  “You two look delicious,” she said, smacking her lips. Gluttony was reflected in her eyes. “Just wait a few minutes while we prepare this broth. Then, you’ll be stewing and cooking in here in no time. Boy soup - our favorite.”

  ***