Adventures in Diviniand

by Nancy Olawale

  “Well, no one can blame me! I mean, it’s not my fault that this place is full of crazy guards! Besides, I didn’t know we came here illegally! That was kind of Jess’s fault!” Harry answered, frustrated.

  “Well, excuse me!” Olivia replied. “If it wasn’t for you just smirking and watching us HANGING in the portal thing, then maybe you would’ve been able to pull us out!” Olivia wasn’t laughing anymore.

  Jess watched the two of them bickering and sighed. Realising that Neenee was still in her hand, she said, “Can you hear anyone coming?”

  Neenee pricked her ears and looked around. “No one’s coming.” “Great! We can start planning our escape!”

  Olivia and Harry fell silent as they heard Jess. “How can we help?” Harry asked.

  Chapter 21

  “Well, we need to find something that can boost us up back to the trapdoor and the vent I came up since I had to jump.” Jess paused. “Oh! I just realised that you guys are in chains!” She picked the hairpin that Olivia gave her earlier from her pocket and picked their locks. “Before we plan our escape, guess what? I saw something that was pretending to be you two!”

  “Was it like a clone?” Harry asked.

  “Precisely that. They were acting suspicious, so I asked them a question, but they got it wrong.”

  “But the ones we saw knew everything about us!” Neenee exclaimed.

  “How do you know, Neenee?” Olivia wondered.

  “Well, the police force people didn’t have chains that fit a diveel, so they just gave me the same chains as Olivia and Harry. And since they were too big, I slipped out of them and looked around. I noticed that me, Olivia, and Harry are the only ones in this jail cell area, so I knew that something weird was going on! Why would you put two people and one diveel in a whole basement? And then I figured that they must’ve put a trap for Jess.”

  “That literally explains everything but what I asked, Neenee!” Olivia said, laughing. “How did you know about the clones?”

  “Well, um, everyone knows about clones in Diviniand…It’s just common knowledge. Also, I saw them.” Neenee shrugged.

  “That helps a lot, Neenee!” Harry said as he rolled his eyes at her.

  “I really do not like the one called Harry,” she whispered to Jess, “and I literally like everyone!”

  “So what has been happening since you guys were caught?” Jess asked Olivia whilst she looked around for anything that could be used as a ladder.

  “Well, not much. The guards made us go into this machine and—”

  Neenee nearly choked. “The Divinament made you go in a machine?”

  “Yeah…” Harry replied.

  “This is not good at all! There’s going to be millions of clones of Harry and Olivia by night!”

  “So you’re saying that if we don’t leave by night, then we’ll be stuck here forever?” Olivia said in barely a whisper.

  “Which means we need to escape Diviniand…NOW!” Jess replied.

  Chapter 22

  “This cannot be happening! It’s nearly sunset!” Harry panicked. “We don’t even know where the gateways are! Admit it, guys, we’re stuck here.”

  “I hate to admit it, but Harry’s right,” Olivia whispered. “It’s impossible to get there on time.”

  “There’s got to be a way! There’s got to be a way!” Jess muttered.

  “I know the way to the gateways!” Neenee said.

  Jess looked up at the diveel. “You know a way to the gateways that will get us there before night.”

  “Yep, but we need to be quick! Come on! We need to find a ladder!” The diveel ran across the room.

  Jess ran another way. “You two stay here. We want to make sure the Divinament think that you’re still in your chains.”

  Harry and Olivia just nodded, and Jess could immediately see that they had given up. Without wasting another minute she went to look in a pile just by her…until she thought of an idea. “We don’t need a ladder! We just need someone who can get up there!”

  Olivia and Harry looked up.

  “What do you mean?” Olivia asked.

  “One of us could boost, let’s say, Harry up. Then he could pull us up! In fact, Harry will be the person to pull the rest of us up!” She looked at Neenee. “What you can do, Neenee, is listen to see if anyone is coming!”

  Neenee nodded.

  “Well, since that’s sorted, Harry, you can—” Jess stopped when she saw that Harry and Olivia were already up on the other side of the door.

  “Get up Jess! The coast is clear. Me and Olivia can boost you up. Just make sure you’ve got Neenee!”

  Jess looked at her hand and saw Neenee standing on it. She jumped and then held onto Harry’s hand, and Olivia held onto her arm (since Neenee was in her hand), and she was pulled up to the main floor. As the vent wasn’t there, Jess led the way to where she jumped from.

  The hallways were swarming with guards, so it was very hard to keep hidden, but then Jess remembered her disguise. No one would recognise her. They finally reached the vent, and Jess thought she should speak of the matter.

  “Quick! Someone needs to get to the vent door!” Jess said urgently, but Harry was already there, and he was in the vent.

  “Neenee, can you hear anyone?” he asked. Again, Neenee shook her head. Harry then beckoned Olivia to come and he pulled her up. He did the same for Neenee and Jess until they were all in the vent.

  “This is really cramped,” Olivia moaned.

  “Whatever,” Jess said, rolling her eyes. “Me and Neenee need to be at the front since Neenee knows where we’re going. Olivia next and then Harry in a straight line. Harry, remember to shut the door.”

  “We need to get outside first!” Neenee said cheerfully.

  “Right. I’m pretty sure I can get us outside.” Jess looked behind her and made sure everyone was there before she started crawling.

  Chapter 23

  As you can imagine, four people in a tiny vent would be very cramped. So Jess was very relieved when Neenee said, “We’re nearly out! We just need to turn left!”

  Neenee’s words energized the other three, as they meant they were a moment closer to home. But also a step closer to the clones. Like she was doing at the beginning of the week, Jess decided to look at the positive aspect of it all. Getting home.

  “JESS!” Neenee shouted.

  Jess sprung back to reality, realising that her friends were calling her. “What is it?”

  “Well, for starters, it seemed that you were unconsciously crawling.” Harry rolled his eyes as he spoke, and then Neenee piped in, “Nu-number—number two is…”

  “What is it, guys? And stop stuttering already!”

  “I really, really, really don’t think you’re going to like this, Jess…” Harry muttered.

  “What is it, then?” Jess was getting a bit frustrated with her three friends.

  “We’ve—we’ve come to a dead end,” Olivia muttered, “and I think we’re being followed…”

  And as Olivia said that, the group heard a loud thud from the vents.

  Chapter 24

  “What do you mean, we’re getting followed?” Jess asked, pretty ticked off, but when she saw the look on her friends’ faces, she knew it was the wrong thing to say: Neenee looked as if she were about to cry; Olivia looked hurt and shocked, and Jess thought she saw anger flash in Harry’s eyes. But not his normal anger—a different type.

  “Sorry, guys,” Jess replied, embarrassed and angry about how she reacted. Because whoever was following them was probably her fault since she didn’t close most of the vent doors. The person or thing that was following them had probably heard Jess shout, and her friends were now probably angry with her. “It’s just that I’m really frustrated, guys.”

  “It’s fine, Jess, we forgive you,” Olivia replied quietly. Jess smiled weakly at them but still felt guilty. Without realising it, the four of them had already gotten to the vent door, and as Neenee had said earlier, it led ou
tside.

  “I can’t believe it!” Harry gasped. “We’re actually going home!” “Don’t get too excited, Harry. We still need to get to the gateway,” Olivia pointed out.

  “Actually, guys, the nearest gateway is just a few metres away!” Neenee said in an odd, excited voice and definitely not in her normal voice.

  “Are you okay, Neenee?” Jess asked suspiciously.

  “Yeah, I’m fine!” Neenee said with a very obvious fake smile, but Jess could sense that something was wrong. She decided to investigate it later, though.

  “A few of us are waiting, you know, Jess! Please move out of the vent!” Harry said politely but bossily all at once.

  “Okay! I’m coming out! Neenee, get on my hand.”

  Neenee did as she was told, and the two of them jumped out of the vent. They landed in a dumpster area that smelled very unpleasant. Jess took off the coat, as it was now pointless. She looked up and realised that Olivia was about to jump. Quickly, she moved out of the way so she wouldn’t be trodden on, and it was lucky that she did. At the same time she moved, Olivia jumped. She then walked up to Jess. “Sorry! I didn’t know you were there!”

  “Don’t worry!” Jess replied. Harry then jumped out of the vent.

  “Harry, did you close the vent?” asked Jess. “We need to make sure it looks like we didn’t come here!”

  “Well, you did a great job doing that. Oh, sorry—did I just say great job? I actually mean an appalling job.” Said someone who wasn’t Harry.

  “Sheesh, Harry! You don’t have to be so mean!” Olivia said to him. He had just landed.

  “Unless I can speak with my mouth closed, then yeah. I’m pretty sure it’s me.”

  “Which means it must be the Divinament guys.” Jess pointed a wobbly finger to a man who was, not surprisingly, Axel, who had appeared to come out of nowhere. It was the man they had heard in the vents!

  “RUN!” Jess screamed.

  She clutched Neenee in her hand and ran with Olivia and Harry behind her. Do they want me for breaking their laws…or the pendant…or both? At least they knew the person who was following them now, but they needed to do something about the Divinament before leaving. Maybe they could tell the people the truth, or maybe if they left, they would stop chasing them. But what about the people who came here frequently? They would have to deal with them for maybe the rest of their lives! So as much as Jess wanted to go home, maybe getting rid of the Divinament was more important…

  She then thought of an idea. “We need to destroy my pendant! They’d stop bothering us and everyone else then!”

  “You sure, Jess?” Olivia shouted back as sweat poured down her face. “It would destroy your chance of getting to know your past!”

  “No turning back there, Jess!” Neenee and Harry both shouted.

  “I think my parents could tell me all about that,” she said bitterly. They kept on running until they finally lost the mysterious man. Again, they seemed to find themselves lost in the crazy world of Diviniand. This time, they ended up in another grassy area.

  “I know this is a tiny bit off topic, but a portal should be around here. I can sense it. Keep a lookout!”

  They nodded to what Neenee said and walked ahead for a few minutes. Jess looked up, disappointed, but then saw something incredible—no, beyond belief. It was the portal.

  Chapter 25

  Her jaw dropped, and when she gently tapped a panting Olivia and Harry on their shoulders, they couldn’t believe it either. The portal was just floating and seemed to be waiting for them, but Jess didn’t go in until she heard her friends’ responses. In her excitement, she squeezed the diveel in delight. Neenee started to scream, and Jess knew that she had squeezed her just a little too hard and stopped.

  “That’s it, then! We can go home.” And for the first time, Harry smiled. Olivia pulled them all into a hug, and Jess couldn’t help laughing. Neenee smiled as well but didn’t look as happy as everyone else. Jess looked at her, concerned…but she then remembered something.

  “I’m not done yet, though. I need to do something about the Divinament. The question is, what…” Jess looked expectantly at Harry for any mean or annoying comment. But he didn’t make one.

  Instead, Harry’s face immediately fell, but he took a few calm breaths. “Tell us what to do, then.”

  “You do know there was no ‘we’ in my sentence?”

  “Well, guess what? I’m deciding that I am going to ignore whatever you just said,” Harry replied.

  Olivia looked at Jess and then at Harry and then at Jess with a smile on her face, and Jess knew that she had made three new friends and not two. She decided that it would be safe to tell Neenee, Harry, and Olivia her plan right now. “We need to destroy my pendant in front of everyone and then immediately leave.”

  “I don’t understand how that’ll help.” Olivia started to stroke her chin, deep in thought, but didn’t need to because Jess was about to explain.

  “Well,” Jess started slowly, “they want us mostly for the necklace, so if we destroy it in front of them, our problems will be solved.”

  “Nice plan and all, but how are we going to remember this place?” Harry asked. “Well, I do have a pretty good memory—” Neenee chipped in.

  “Great, we just need to get Axel—” Jess was delighted.

  “But how are we going to destroy the necklace?” Olivia asked.

  “Very funny that you’re asking us that exact question, Olivia!” Harry said, laughing. “Remember that ‘useless’ match in your pocket—it might be just what we need! Its power must be to burn anything the flame lands on!”

  “Harry! You’re a genius!” Olivia gasped.

  “Well, since we have a foolproof plan, let’s save everyone, and us, in Diviniand!”

  Chapter 26

  “Has anyone seen Axel?” Jess asked. The sun looked like it was about to set, which wasn’t very good. At. All. Whilst Neenee, Harry, and Olivia were looking for him, Jess looked for a way to use the match. “Are you sure you didn’t find a matchbox, Olivia?”

  Olivia looked away from where she was searching and seemed like she was getting frustrated, which barely ever happened. “I told you that I didn’t see one, Jess,” she said with gritted teeth.

  “You’re forgetting something,” Harry pointed out. “We’re in Diviniand, not Kent, and it’s time you started thinking we’re from here.”

  “You’re right, Harry. You need to broaden your mind if you want to solve our problems,” Neenee agreed.

  “They’re both right. Maybe think instead of bothering me every five minutes!” Olivia laughed and smiled.

  “This may seem crazy.” Jess took off her pendant again and scraped the match on it. A bursting flame came out, and Jess blew the flame out. “I knew it! My pendant has a strange reaction to Diviniand objects, so I thought it might work, and it did!” Jess put her necklace back on, smiling to herself.

  “We should use the fire to signal them here!” Harry realised.

  “Or we could wait till sunset for all the Divinament to come with their clones,” Neenee argued.

  “Unless you want us to be caught again, Neenee, I think we’ll go with Harry’s plan,” Jess said gently. Neenee looked down and seemed even more upset.

  “Neenee,” Jess finally asked whilst looking down at her hand, “what’s the matter?”

  “Oh, it’s nothing.”

  “Nee—”

  “Everyone’s excited about leaving Diviniand!” the diveel burst out. “Nobody cares the tiniest bit about what’s going to happen to me! When everyone is gone, where will I go? Absolutely no one has asked me where my home is! Well, guess what? I don’t have a home! I’m just a lonely diveel, and my only friends that I have ever had are the exact same ones who are going to ditch me in a few hours!”

  Oliva had water in her eyes, and Harry looked upset. Jess felt guilty for completely ignoring Neenee’s emotions but then remembered something. “I care, Neenee,” Jess said quietly. “If yo
u heard my thoughts in the vents, you would have heard me think that I should ask you what you want to do…Do you want to come back home with us or stay here in Diviniand?”

  Chapter 27

  “I—I want to stay but only if you make regular visits on your holidays.”

  “How would we do that, though? I mean, we are literally about to, you know, destroy the necklace!” Harry pointed out with slight sarcasm.

  “She was not talking to you, Harry. She was talking to Jess.” Olivia glared at him. “Besides, there are portals. Duh.”

  “I can’t, Neenee. I just cannot ever come back here. I’m really, really sorry,” Jess said.

  “Why, though?” Neenee hung her head down whilst she asked.

  “For our plan to work, they need to know that we are gone for good.” Jess then whispered, “I’m really sorry, Neenee.”

  “It’s fine. In order for this to work, you do need to go.”

  “Well then, can we get the signal ready?” Olivia asked.

  “Already on it!” Harry replied. “I might’ve already sent the signal whilst you guys were talking.”

  “I guess that means they’re coming now!” Olivia sighed. “You really need to tell us what you plan on doing before you actually do it.”

  Harry rolled his eyes at her, and that was the end of their surprisingly quick argument. I guess we are changing from the start of this whole…I guess I could call it a quest. Jess looked up and saw that Axel and the others were coming nearer and nearer. It looked like he was bringing a whole army just to take three kids and one diveel to the jail. Wasn’t that a bit of a waste? She then saw them holding things that looked like guns but were a bit different. Something’s not right…

  “Neenee, what are they holding?”