“But I don’t want to hurt yo—” More spikes shot up through the sands around them, and they were getting closer—too close.
He knew that if too many spikes popped up, they would impale him and Dora. “We don’t have a choice.” He jumped to his feet and pulled Dora onto hers. He reached down, grabbed one of the staves and put it in her hand. “Just kill me, and get it over with.”
Dora frowned. She appeared upset by the suggestion.
“It won’t hurt me. It’s okay.” He lied.
Dora examined the staff in her hand before glancing at him with confusion and fear in her eyes.
More spikes shot up through the earth, causing his pulse to race with fear.
If she doesn’t do it soon, we’ll both die.
“Just fucking attack me, and stop messing around!” he shouted at her with panic bubbling in his chest. He’d come back from being killed, but Dora wouldn’t.
A spark of anger lit up in her eyes, and they narrowed to slits. She raised the staff above him, flashing him a wicked glare. He froze in fear when she gave him a hard smack on the head with her staff.
Inky darkness swallowed him as he slipped into unconsciousness with one final thought filling his mind.
Crap! Doesn’t she know staves are meant for spell casting?
Dora watched Kieron crumple to the ground before glancing at the stick in her hand.
Why are we hitting each other with sticks?
She shrugged.
That was easy.
“Okay you can turn off the spikes now. I won,” she shouted to Lord Lascher. She couldn’t understand why Lord Lascher had his head in his hands, or why he was shaking his head so much.
“What? I bonked him with the stick. Did I pass?”
“You were supposed to kill him!” Lord Lascher screamed at her.
“With a stick? Gimme a bazooka next time if you want to see blood spatter.” She knelt over Kieron, brushing sand off his cheek. She was relieved to find him snoring like a baby and unharmed by her attack.
“It’s a staff, you idiot!” Lord Lascher shouted back.
Dora scowled and stood up. She faced Lord Lascher and growled.
No one calls me an idiot.
She angrily waved the stick at him. “Screw you!” she screamed.
Lord Lascher’s face paled. She watched in awe as he spun around on the spot, slowly at first then faster and faster. He shrank as if being screwed into the ground, but he didn’t make a dent in the steel platform he stood upon. His body squashed downwards instead, every time it turned.
She gulped, and her stomach turned when Lord Lascher’s body bulged as his bones crunched downwards into places they shouldn’t go. His skin stretched as if it were about to pop under the pressure of being screwed down.
She turned away to see Kieron sitting up beside her. She glanced down at him, horrified. “I-I didn’t mean to—” she stammered.
A loud groaning sound caused her to spin around to face the platform, just as Lord Lascher’s body popped like a grape in a vice and splattered all over the podium.
“Just be thankful you didn’t shout, ‘fuck you asshole’ while holding that thing.” Kieron nodded at the staff, laughing. “He’s going to be pissed when he comes back.”
Dora gulped. She’d just squished her teacher. She’d just killed someone! There was a sickening sensation in her stomach telling her it was very wrong to kill Lord Lascher, but the weapon in her hand made her feel powerful. She glanced down at the staff. “Are we allowed to keep these?”
Kieron faced a tentacled beast with only a feather duster in his hands for a weapon. He glanced at the pink fluffy weapon with disbelief.
What the fu—
The beast knocked the duster out of his hand with one of its meaty red tentacles and slapped him across the face with another at the same time.
He hunkered down low to avoid another vicious swipe from it. His heart hammered, and beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. He stared at the wicked green eyes of the creature. Its abnormally small head followed his every move as its waving tentacles surrounded it. It didn’t have a body, just arms attached to a pea head.
Its head must be its weak spot, he realised. It’s now or never.
He ran at the monster, letting out a loud roar and launching himself at it. Slimy tentacles wrapped around him, squeezing his chest and making it impossible for him to breathe. He struggled and tried to cry out. But when he opened his mouth, no sound came out. The tentacles tightened. He gasped, feeling as if his insides were about to explode.
I’m going to die!
He slammed onto the floor as he rolled off his bed and landed in a heap. Wrapped up in the tangled maze of his bed sheet, he struggled to get out of it. It took a moment for him to realise he’d been asleep, and the tentacled monster had been his bed sheet.
Kieron groaned and wriggled to escape the confining bed sheet. Something was terribly wrong.
Demons don’t dream!
With his muscles still trembling with adrenaline, he cautiously peered around his bedroom. The large mahogany wardrobe still stood in the corner of the room next to a matching desk and a few bookshelves. His brown-leather La-Z-Boy armchair was still at the end of his bed, opposite his X-box 360. Next to the chair was the mini-fridge that he used to cool his cans of Red Bull. Even though his most precious items were all accounted for, he couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something was wrong.
He struggled out of the last tendril of sheet and stood up. His bedroom door caught his eye as it shimmered with a purple haze. He rubbed his eyes to ensure it wasn’t just him and looked again. A faint purple mist shimmered in front of the doorway.
Kieron stepped closer to the fog and stretched out his hand to touch it. A red tentacle came out of the haze and slapped him across the face. He jumped back with a yelp. Something was stopping him from leaving the room. He searched the room for a weapon. His eyes fell upon a pink feather duster, which Maisie the maid-demon must have left on his bedside table.
Oh, come on. You’ve gotta be kidding me! What is this, Groundhog Day?
It was as if the dream had been a warning of what was to come, but he never dreamed. Was it a warning? Why would he dream now?
Okay, I need to be clever about this. Running for the door isn’t going to work.
He glanced out of the window at the street below and contemplated trying to climb down the side of the castle, but the castle was made of smooth onyx with several sharp spires and ledges for him to become impaled on.
D’ho, Magic. I’ll just use magic.
He stared at the door, frowning with concentration as he tried to cast a spell on it. “Releashio,” he muttered. Nothing appeared to have changed, but he reached a hand into the purple haze again anyway. An angry red tentacle slapped his hand away.
“Damn it.” He tried the spell again, this time forcing all his senses to concentrate on the door. “RELEASHIO!”
The red tentacle waved out of the purple mist and waggled at him in a disapproving manner.
“Son of a bitch!” He snapped at it, trying to grab it. The feeler waved out of his way and bitch-slapped him across the left cheek several times instead before eventually knocking him backwards onto his ass.
Kieron landed on the hard wooden floor with a groan.
What the hell is this? Has it attacked the whole castle? Is Dora okay?
Panic and fear over what may be happening to Dora forced him to react with a sense of urgency. He ran at the door with no thought for his own safety and slammed into a wall of purple mist. He growled and pushed it back an inch at a time, fighting his way through it with determination and straining his demon muscles.
The haze weakened. After pushing against it, snarling and growling, he eventually burst through the doorway. He smashed into the oak panels, ripping the door off its hinges and tumbling into the corridor outside of his room. He nearly stumbled over the balustrade in the process. Using all his strength to stop himself before he t
ook a nasty spill over the railing, he gripped the bannister, pushing back against it. He spun around in preparation to fight the monstrous red beast blocking his door.
He blinked.
Where is it?
He studied his bedroom door. It was now hanging off its frame in splintered pieces. The purple haze had evaporated, and there was nothing there.
Kieron frowned when he heard a small squeak coming from somewhere near the door. He leaned over the wreckage. The sound emanated from beneath a broken piece of wood, which gently wobbled. Sticking out from under the wood was a pair of tiny female legs.
He lifted the wood and stared down at the miniature blond-haired woman lying on the floor. She wore a purple princess dress and a tiny silver tiara. She sparkled everywhere except her feet, which were encased in black biker boots. She had little, transparent wings and long, pointy ears, one of which was bent at an awkward angle.
“Don’t hurt me!” She squeaked. “I was only doing my job.”
“Your job?” Kieron scowled as she waved her hands in a placating gesture, and purple dust fell from them. “What exactly is your job?”
“I was paid to keep you inside your room,” she said. “I’m innocent, I swear.”
“Who paid you?”
“I can’t go divulging my clients. It’d ruin my reputation.”
“Your reputation as what? What the hell are you?”
“Can’t you tell?” She stood up before flying up towards his face and hovering in front of him. She stuck her ass and chest out at the same time in a dainty pose, batting her pretty eyelashes at him.
Kieron slapped himself in the forehead when he realised what she was. “You’re a fucking fairy, aren’t you?”
“Dark fairy—it’s dark fairy, not fucking fairy!” She screeched at him, putting her tiny hands on her tiny hips.
“It’s squashed fucking fairy if you don’t tell me who hired you.” Kieron snapped at her.
“Fine! It’s not as if I’m getting paid for this job since you got out of the room. Lord Lascher paid me to keep you in your room.” Her eyes narrowed as she studied him. “What are you anyway? No demon should have been able to get through my blockade.” She looked him up and down. “Half breed?”
“I am not a bloody half breed!” Kieron wanted to strangle her. Why did demons always assume there was something wrong with him? He was just a bit too nice. That was all.
“Well, whatever. I didn’t sign up to babysit someone like you, so I’ll be on my way.”
“Babysit? You trapped me in my room with a big red monster!”
“Meh, semantics,” she muttered.
“Why did my father want me trapped in my room?” Kieron had a sinking suspicion it couldn’t have been for anything good.
“I dunno, something about a door.” The fairy shrugged, absentmindedly using her magic wand as a toothpick. “Can I go now? I’ve got a gig on DisneyLevel in an hour.”
“A door? Wait—Dora. Do you mean Dora?” Kieron’s pulse raced in panic.
What’s he doing to her?
“Yeah, that was it, a Dora. What is ‘a Dora’ anyway? And dude, you’ve gone as white as a sheet. Maybe you’re half ghost?”
“I’m not half ghost.” Kieron waved the question away as his mind ran over the possibilities. Dora had killed his father. Would his father do the same to her? He paced the hall worrying before pausing to glare at the fairy. “Dora is a name of a person. You do know what a name is, don’t you?”
“Of course, I have a lovely name,” the fairy said.
“What is it?”
“Spazmerelda,” she said, puffing out her chest in pride.
He was lost for words over how awful her name was, but decided it was best not to mention it to her. He found it difficult hold in a snigger, but she didn’t notice.
“Can I go now? I’ve have thousands of whining demon spawn waiting to see me dance at the Fairy Godmother’s Ball.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
“Yeah, we cut off a horse’s head at the end. It’s very dramatic.”
“Eww.” He wrinkled his nose in disgusted.
“You clearly have no concept of art.” Spazmerelda huffed before she flew away muttering about critics.
Kieron shook his head as he watched Spazmerelda depart.
Fucking fairies.
He turned away as worry over Dora consumed his thoughts. He dashed down the hallway to her room and burst through the doorway.
“Dora, are you okay?” he cried.
She wasn’t in her room, but it wasn’t empty either. Slouched on her bed with a large tub of Ben and Jerry’s, and surrounded by an array of snacks was a depressed-looking Pooey. Kieron stared at Pooey as he dipped his hand into a bag of cheesy puffs. He pulled out a handful of them before stuffing them into his mouth.
“Pooey, where’s Dora? I think she’s in trouble,” Kieron said.
“Whash?” A spray of munched up cheesy puffs shot out of Pooey’s full mouth and over Dora’s bed.
“Eww, don’t speak with your mouth full,” Kieron muttered.
“Thash right!” Pooey sprayed another blast of cheesy puffs onto the bed before swallowing the remaining snacks in his mouth. “That’s right. Pick on Pooey. Pooey does everything wrong. Pooey sucks. Pooey sucks so bad he got named Pooey!” The little, brown fluffy demon shrieked before slamming his fist in the bag of cheesy puffs and grinding them into crumbs in the process.
“I er, never said you sucked.”
“Go away,” Pooey muttered as he licked an ice cream spoon and sadly stared down at his protruding, fluffy belly.
Kieron felt a moment of sympathy for the little guy.
What happened to him?
“Are you okay?” he asked, taking a seat beside him on the edge of the bed. He frowned. Pooey never acted this depressed. Something must have happened.
His sympathy for the little demon evaporated when Pooey burped with a loud ‘warp’ noise that echoed through the room. “Aww, come on. That’s just gross.”
“Bite me,” Pooey replied, stuffing a whole biscuit into his mouth.
“Don’t tempt me,” Kieron muttered. “This is getting us nowhere. Have you seen Dora? Do you know where she is?”
Pooey nodded, and he gazed up at Kieron with big sad eyes that brimmed with helplessness.
“Is she okay? Did something happen?” As his worry increased, his stomach twisted into a knot of anxiety.
Pooey’s cute and helpless eyes transformed into an evil glare when he narrowed them. “Is she alright? Ha! As if I care.” Pooey rubbed his fluffy chin, and a few crumbs fell out of it into the tub of ice cream.
“Why wouldn’t you? You like Dora,” Kieron said, unsure of what he’d walked into.
“Used to. Don’t like new Dora,” Pooey mumbled. “She’s mean.”
“Dora’s not mean.” He smiled at Pooey to reassure him.
“Oh, yeah? So why did she steal my ninja skills and leave with your father while laughing at me?”
“What?”
“I was all happy and trusting with her. Stupid Pooey, I should have known better. This morning, in walks your father with a new spell for Dora. She needed my help, so I helped her. I didn’t know the spell, but I trusted her. Next thing you know, she’s waltzing off to a bar with your dad, and I’m stuck in here unable to leave. I tried every ninja trick I know, and all I can manage to do is summon a fat guy’s lost weekend into the room.” Pooey gestured to the array of snacks and sweets on the bed. “I should have known better. Nobody loves Pooey.” With his last sentence, Pooey dropped his head face first into the ice cream with a defeated sigh.
A muffled sound came from within the ice cream tub. Kieron gripped on the back of Pooey’s shaggy head and pulled it out of the tub to discover he was still mumbling. “… and now I’m fat, and no one will ever love me …” He released Pooey’s head, and his face dropped back into the ice cream with a plopping sound.
Dora had left with his father. Okay, t
hat was somewhat understandable, but why would she take Pooey’s ninja skills, and why had he been trapped in his room? He couldn’t believe Dora would ever harm Pooey in any way, so there must be another explanation.
“Ohh!” He realised what had happened.
Pooey raised a curious, ice-cream-covered face out of the tub and eyed Kieron. “What?”
“I don’t think she took your ninja skills. I was trapped in my room this morning too by my father and a fucking fairy.”
“It’s DARK FAIRY!” A small female voice screamed from the hallway.
Kieron spun around to see the angry little being fly into the room. Her face was red, and her hands were resting on her hips.
“I thought you had to go?” Kieron said.
Spazmerelda held her hands at either side of her, imitating a weighing scale. “Whining demon spawn or babysitting idiots. It’s a tough choice.”
“Did you take Pooey’s ninja skills?” Kieron scowled at her.
Pooey’s eyes narrowed to slits as he glared at the fairy.
“Take? No, I don’t take. I hide,” Spazmerelda said while studying her nails with wide, innocent eyes.
“Give me back my skills, hot fairy bitch.” Pooey jumped to his feet and angrily brushed cookies and cream off his face.
“Do you really think I’m hot?” she asked.
“Graaaargh!” Pooey launched himself off the bed and into the air, grabbing Spazmerelda and landing on top of her with a loud thud. “Ninja skills, now. Or I warn you, it won’t be pretty.”
“Oh yeah, what are you gonna do?” She sniggered.
“Let’s just say that after all the ice cream and given my sudden movement and my current position, you won’t be pretty by the time I’ve finished with you.” His stomach rumbled as if backing up his threat.
“Eww! Fine, whatever, have them back!” She clicked her fingers. A purple glow settled over Pooey, making him smile for a moment.
“Now let me go.” Spazmerelda snapped, pushing at his fluffy shoulders with her tiny hands.
Pooey rolled off her and stood up with a happy shiver. His fur ruffled, and he grinned.
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