Chosen One

by Katie Holland

  The recreation room had been turned into a mini theater with individual recliners and Alix was sure she could smell popcorn. They took seats in the extremely comfy chairs and waited for the movie. They had no idea what it was going to be but Alix was glad that it turned out to be a comedy and not something scary. About halfway through the movie Merideth handed out bags of popcorn to everyone. It was perfect with lots of butter and salt.

  When the movie was over everyone went their separate ways. Ben, Shay and Alix decided to go for a walk in the castle. As they were walking by the fireplace Alix suddenly remembered that they’d found a secret passage.

  “Ben, with everything that’s happen in the last few days we completely forgot to come back here and check out what’s behind the fireplace,” Alix said.

  “Wow, how could we forget that,” he said. “You know we’ve been busy when we forget to come back and check out a secret passageway.”

  “What are you guys talking about?” Shay asked.

  “The other day I was looking at this mantle and I found a button on it so I pushed it. Turns out that behind this fireplace there seems to be a secret passageway. We heard people coming and didn’t want anyone to know what we found and had to find a way quickly to close it. We were going to come back and explore it but then with everything going on with you and Logan we kind of forgot to come back.”

  “Holy crap, you really found a hidden door in the fireplace?” Shay asked.

  “Yes, it’s really cool. Are you guys up for checking it out?” Alix asked. She was pretty sure she knew what the answer would be.

  “Of course,” Shay answered.

  “I’m in,” was Ben’s response.

  “Should we do it now?” Alix asked.

  “No time like the present,” Ben said. “Let’s just make sure no one is coming, and we’ll open it.”

  They checked the surrounding area and listened closely. They didn’t see or hear anything, so Alix pressed the button that opened the fireplace. It swung inward, and they poked their heads in. All they could see were stone walls. The three of them stepped into the passageway.

  Above the fireplace door there looked to be a window because they could clearly see the sitting area in front of the fireplace.

  “That must be the mirror,” Ben said. “I bet it’s there so that you can see if anyone is there before you open the door. It wouldn’t be much of a secret if someone saw you coming out of it.”

  “You’re probably right,” Alix said. “We need to figure out how to close the door.”

  They started searching the walls and eventually found a small lever. Ben pushed it down and the door closed. When that happened the passageway suddenly lit up. It was just like the light that was in the stairway back home in the upstairs closet of the Nykara house.

  “Does this seem a little familiar to anyone else?” Alix asked them.

  “Yes, it’s just like back home when you found out what was in the hall closet,” Ben said. “You don’t think it could lead to something similar, do you?”

  “It’s a possibility. Let’s find out,” Alix said and started walking.

  They followed the tunnel a long way. It twisted and turned but so far all they found were stone walls. At one point they realized that the entire passageway had a slight downward slope to it. None of them were willing to give up so they kept walking. Finally, they came to another door but this one was a normal one with a handle. Alix tried to open it, but it appeared locked. So, she did what had been working on all the other doors that wouldn’t open and put her tattoo against it. She heard a little click and tried it again. It had worked, and they were able to open it.

  They were only partially surprised when they found a room with ten different colored doors just like back in Sunset Creek. Since they didn’t need anything from the room at the moment there was no use trying to open any of the colored doors. They knew they would only find stone walls.

  “I bet every Nykara safe house has one of these rooms,” Ben said.

  “It would make sense,” Alix said. “So, should be go back?”

  “I guess so,” Shay said. “There’s not much to see here. And I thought we’d find more secret passages or something.”

  “To be honest, so did I,” Alix said.

  The walk back to the fireplace seemed to take longer, that was partially due to the fact that they were walking up a bit of a hill the entire way. When they got back to the fireplace they checked to see that no one was there, and Ben opened the door. They closed it and went upstairs. Shay went to her room and Alix and Ben went to hers. It was later than they thought, and the long walk had tired them out. Everyone fell asleep very quickly.

  Chapter 32

  The first thing Alix did the next morning was check the itinerary for the day.

  Friday November 11

  - 8:00 am – breakfast

  - 9:00 am – leave for London

  - 10:00 am – attend Remembrance Day Ceremony

  - 12:00 pm – lunch

  - 12:30 pm – Visitor’s Choice – Day 2

  - Time TBD – leave for Fox Hollow

  She wondered exactly what a Remembrance Day Ceremony was, but she assumed because it was November 11th that it was something like Veteran’s Day. She planned to ask at breakfast. She also noticed that the afternoon was another Visitor’s Choice. They hadn’t talked about it at dinner last night, so she guessed they would figure it out this morning.

  When Alix asked about it she was correct in her thinking and learned that it was called Remembrance Day in pretty much all of the British Commonwealth. After breakfast they were all given a poppy to pin to their jackets and they left for London.

  Alix was very moved by the ceremony and was surprised at how many people were in attendance, there were thousands of people all there to pay their respects. After the ceremony she was introduced to several of the dignitaries and a number of current soldiers who were also Nykara. One thing she was learning was that there were a lot more Nykara than she realized.

  At lunch they discussed what they wanted to do for the rest of the afternoon. They decided on Westminster Abbey and Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. First, they went to Westminster Abbey. It was beautiful, and Alix must have taken a hundred pictures. Next, they went to Madame Tussauds. It was so much fun to see the celebrities they had there. Everyone was looking at things at their own pace, so their group was scattered all over the museum. Alix was enjoying herself, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. She kept looking around her, but she couldn’t see anything out of place.

  Ben noticed Alix’s behavior and stopped her. Shay stopped as well. “What’s up?” Ben asked Alix.

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “I just feel like something isn’t quite right. When’s the last time you saw anyone else from our group?”

  All three of them thought about it for a minute and none of them could recall the last time they saw anyone they knew.

  “Don’t you think that’s kind of strange?” Alix said.

  “I think it’s very strange,” Ben said.

  “Hey guys,” Shay said, “where’s our Warrior shadow?”

  They looked around and didn’t see her.

  “Something is very, very wrong,” Alix said. “Let’s look and see if we can find anyone.”

  They walked around the entire museum and didn’t find a single familiar face.

  “We need to find somewhere where we can be alone,” Alix told them.

  The only place they could find that they could lock the door was the employee lounge. There was no one there so they went in and locked the door.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but I know it’s not good,” Alix said. “I’m going to see if I can sense them.”

  Alix gathered her energy and flung it out into the museum. She felt it touch many humans that were there but no Nykara. She used more energy and went beyond the museum but still nothing.

  “Someth
ing is definitely wrong,” she said to Ben and Shay. “There’s no trace of anyone Nykara even close to here.”

  “But how can that be?” Shay asked.

  “I don’t know,” Alix answered. “How can everyone just be gone? I don’t understand.”

  They stood there for a minute not knowing what to do when Alix came to a realization.

  “My dream. In my dream when we came back to the square everyone was gone and now everyone that we know is really gone. It has to be the Grynn.”

  “Are you sure?” Shay asked.

  “It’s the only thing that makes any sense at all,” Alix said.

  “How could it be possible for the Grynn to just take sixteen people without us or anyone noticing?” Ben asked.

  “The Sleep of Death and camouflage,” Alix said. “That’s how they got the hikers in Yellowstone. Remember, the Grynn aren’t like us and they have a lot of abilities that we don’t know about. It’s going to be up to us to find and save them. This is just like when they took Sara, Jack and Samantha but on a bigger scale and this time it involves people we love. I’m also scared of what they might do to Logan since he failed to return to them with the information they wanted.”

  “I still don’t understand how they would know that you’re the Chosen One without the information from Logan,” Shay said.

  “I have a feeling that they’ve been watching us when we’ve been in London,” Ben said. “Anyone watching our group meet new people would have figured out that Alix was something special by the way she was greeted, even if they couldn’t hear what was being said.”

  “So, what do we do now?” Shay asked.

  “Since we have no idea where they might be I think we need to get back to Fox Hollow as soon as possible,” Alix said. “Do we have any way of contacting Gordon?”

  “Yes,” Ben said. “The first day we got here he gave me a number to call if there was ever an emergency.”

  “I think this qualifies,” Shay said. “Call him.”

  Ben took out his phone and called the number Gordon had given him. He answered on the first ring.

  “What’s happened?” Gordon said when he answered.

  “The Grynn have taken everyone except Alix, Shay and me,” Ben told him.

  “Where are you?”

  “Madame Tussauds.”

  “Is the bus still there?”

  “I don’t know. When we figured out that everyone was missing we locked ourselves in the employee lounge.”

  “I need you to go and check for the bus. I’ll stay on the phone with you. The three of you need to stick together. Now go and just act normal.”

  Ben told the girls what Gordon said so they unlocked the door and casually made their way to the exit. They were extremely vigilant but didn’t see any Grynn. They saw the bus and went straight to it.

  “The bus is here Gordon,” Ben told him.

  “Good. Is the driver still there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Give the phone to him.”

  They got on the bus and Ben handed the phone to the driver. Gordon talked to him for a minute and handed the phone back to Ben.

  “Gordon,” Ben said, “what are we doing?”

  “Your driver is going to get you back here as fast as possible. We’ll talk more when you get here. Best of luck and be careful.”

  Ben hung up and relayed the information to Alix and Shay. They took their seats and the driver started the bus. Gordon wasn’t kidding when he said the driver was going to get them there fast. Every light was mysteriously green and once they got out of the city he drove extremely fast. The hour-long drive only took about half that time.

  Chapter 33

  Gordon was at the front entrance waiting for them. He rushed them inside to the main foyer where the fireplace was. Meredith was there pacing back and forth.

  “Tell us exactly what happened since you left here this morning,” Gordon said.

  Alix told them everything about their day. From the ceremony and meeting the dignitaries to arriving at the wax museum and looking around it then noticing that everyone was gone.

  “When I remembered my dream, I realized that it has to be the Grynn that took them,” Alix said.

  “I agree,” Gordon told her.

  “So, what do we do now?” Ben asked.

  “We go to the Map Room,” Gordon told them. “Follow me.”

  He opened the secret fireplace entrance and the five of them started down the long passageway.

  “You don’t seem surprised about the secret entrance,” Gordon said to them.

  “We’re not,” Alix replied. “Ben and I found it a few days after we got here and last night we explored it.”

  “So, you know where we’re going then,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  They continued down the tunnel until they got to the room with the colored doors. Alix went straight to the brown door and opened it.

  “Miss Alix, how did you know which door it was?” Gordon asked her.

  It was Ben that answered for her. “It’s part of being the Chosen One. She did the same thing back in Sunset Creek.”

  Gordon just nodded. They went into the Map Room. Alix, Ben and Shay were amazed at what they saw. The wall in front of them was a giant map of the world. As they got closer they could see small red and blue dots all over it.

  “How does it work?” Ben asked.

  “The red dots are Nykara and the blue ones are Grynn,” Gordon answered. “To get a better look at an area simply press your tattoo to the spot you want to look at closer and it will zoom in. Like this.”

  Gordon went to where England was and pressed his tattoo over London and the map zoomed in and the cluster of dots spread out.

  “That’s so cool,” Shay said.

  “Where are we on this map compared to London?” Alix asked.

  “Right here,” he said pointing to a small cluster of red dots.

  Alix went closer to the map and pressed her tattoo over Fox Hollow and it zoomed in even further. She counted the red dots. There were nine. But there was also a yellow dot.

  “It’s showing nine red dots, is that how many Nykara are here right now?”

  “Yes, there are nine of us currently in Fox Hollow, plus Miss Shay.”

  “Does that mean she’s the yellow dot?” Alix asked.

  “I believe so Miss Alix. There’s never been a yellow dot before, it must be the ring she wears,” Gordon answered.

  “So that means if we can find a cluster of red dots, two yellow ones and at least two blue dots we should be able to find out where they’ve taken our people. Right?”

  “Yes, Miss Alix that would be correct.”

  They started looking on the map in the areas closest to London. As the five of them continued to look Ben had a couple of questions.

  “Gordon, so is this a room that you can access all the time or is it only there when you really need it.”

  “Yes, this is the only door down here that is always available,” Gordon answered.

  “So that means you can track Grynn at any time, right?”

  “Yes, but it’s not something we do on a regular basis. We really only come down here when there’s an emergency or we start to notice a pattern of Grynn activity.”

  After a couple minutes of searching Alix thought she might have found them.

  “Look here everyone. It’s a small cluster of red, yellow and blue dots in the middle of London. That has to be them, I’m going to zoom in.”

  She put her tattoo over the spot and watched as the dots got bigger. She was able to count the dots individually now, fourteen red ones, two yellow ones and ten blue ones.

  “That’s got to be them Gordon. It’s the right number of people. Is there a way to tell for sure? We don’t want to go to the wrong place?” Alix asked.

  “Yes Miss Alix, please zoom in even closer.”

  Alix did, and Gordon went over to the wall
on their left and touched it. A small door opened, and he removed something from it. It looked like a magnifying glass. He put it over the spot that Alix had found, and it allowed them to see the actual people that were there.

  Alix gasped when she saw the people she loved laying on the floor. They looked dead, but she was sure it was the Sleep of Death, at least she hoped it was. She wanted to cry but knew this wasn’t the time. She needed to be strong in order to save them.

  “Wow,” she heard Shay say.

  “So what next Alix?” Ben asked her.

  “Gordon,” Alix said, “can you figure out exactly where this is and what kind of building they are being held in?”

  “Yes Miss Alix.”

  “Okay, let’s start there. I don’t think we need anything more in here. Let’s get back to the main part of the castle.”

  They went back down the long tunnel and were back in the foyer.

  “Are there any Warriors close to us?” Alix asked.

  “There should be some in London that we're here for the Remembrance Day Ceremony," Gordon told her.

  “Can we get in touch with them?”

  “Yes. Merideth can make a call and we can have them meet us wherever we need them.”

  “Okay, good.”

  “What are you thinking Alix?” Ben asked.

  “From what I saw there looked to be two Grynn watching our people and eight stationed around the building as security or lookouts. We’re going to have to take them by surprise in order to gain access to that building. And we’re going to have to do it quietly. We need to get into that building undetected if we can. We’ll also have to look for traps and anything else that could stop us. I know their ultimate goal is to get me and the rest of you won’t matter to them, you’ll just be in the way, so you’ll have to be extra careful. Gordon, do we have access to any cars?”