“This is no time to fight about this. Abigail needs to focus!” The doctor waved at Taylor and Hailey to stop a possible escalation of their bickering. For their part, the two consoled themselves with glaring at each other quietly.
Despite everything the doctor showed us and the emotional shock of the event, I told myself this was not the time to let my guard down. Somehow I still had misgivings. “How did you get in?” I asked her. “There are armed guards—”
“That’s not important right now.” She turned to face me again and said, “What is important is that they’re right behind me. Don’t you get it? If I can get in, so can they. Anyone with you is in danger if you don’t open the box.”
“Well, actually, it is important. I’m not buying this whole magic bandits are after you. We know about your tie-ins with the mafia. So don’t think we’re just going to fall for whatever sob story you give us. What’s in that box? Drugs? Money? Nevermind, I don’t want to know. I’m not and don’t want to have a part of this mafia stuff! Sorry, doll, but I need that scholarship. I’m out,” Hailey said.
Taylor got up from her chair. “Me too! I’m not with her! I can leave! I won’t, I refuse to be a party to whatever illegal stuff her parents are involved in. I have my own life to live. I just need to wait for Blaise and we’re leaving.”
Both Taylor and Hailey got up and they walked together to the door to leave, staring at each other, surprised at their sudden alliance.
Thinking it through, I said, “Take Kieran and the doctor with you! If anything’s going down, I don’t want anyone else to be hurt.”
“I’m staying,” the doctor said.
Hailey crossed her arms and blew a breath through her teeth. She didn’t budge to look for Kieran.
Taylor huffed and stomped over to where Kieran was hiding. “If we must take this little coward, fine,” Taylor said and looked under the table. “He’s gone. Maybe the little scaredy-cat is smarter than he looks. C’mon, let’s get out of here.”
Both girls walked briskly to the door to leave. Halfway there, we heard Kieran’s voice echoing from the hallway. We froze, our faces illuminated in stripes of light passing through the gaps of the wooden door. Then the hallway lights went out.
“Blaise, run! Run! They’re here!” Kieran’s panicked voice permeated the room.
Then we heard, “Kieran, where are you?” Blaise answered back.
The two girls looked at each other, rooted to the ground in fear. My heart was racing. We approached the wooded door cautiously and peered through the gaps.
Just as I suspected, it was pitch black in the hallway. Then we saw a bright flash far down the hallway.
“Take cover!” I cried. Hailey and Taylor ran to the right side of the door and I went to the opposite side. We looked at the each other but no one spoke. A split second after doing so we heard a loud BANG! like something exploded from within the hallway.
Everyone was jolted by the sudden blast. I looked at the door, transfixed. We exchanged glances but no one moved back to look through the crack to check. A few seconds later, there was a loud pounding on the door.
It was Kieran. “Open the door, they’re after us!”
Taylor moved to the open the door. Before she could, another flash filled the room. We saw the light pass through the cracks of the door. Then another BANG! and a resounding slam on the door.
“Open the door, Taylor!” Hailey yelled.
Taylor took a couple of seconds and yanked the door open. Kieran staggered in, arching his back. I saw his shirt had a circular burn on it. It was still smoldering and smoking from whatever hit him. His skin under the burned shirt glistened with plasma and blood.
“They’re here,” he said and then he hit the floor in agony. Taylor quickly closed the door behind her.
“Where’s Blaise? Where’s Blaise?” Taylor was getting frantic and fell on her knees by Kieran. She took him by the collar and shook him. Hailey, who was closest to the two, pulled Taylor to get her away from Kieran.
As if an answer to her, we heard Blaise’s voice down the hallway. Taylor ran back to the door.
Hailey started to pull Kieran farther away from the door.
“Open the door, they’re after me! They’re here! Let me in!” Kieran cried.
Dr. McGrath said, “Don’t open the door! You will risk us all!”
“Are you crazy? I can’t leave him out there!” Taylor answered while yanking on the handle to get the door open.
An immediate consciousness of danger enveloped my being. I yelled, “Stop!
Taylor looked at me and then at the door as if trying to decide whether to follow my instructions or risk Kieran’s life.
“Taylor, listen to me. Open the door when I tell you. Not any sooner!” She nodded and then we waited. Seconds stretched to an unbearable minute then two. We heard Blaise’s panicked voice echoing down the corridor.
For a reason I can’t explain, I sensed Blaise’s presence behind the door. As soon as I did, I said, “Now!” Taylor yanked the door wide open.
Blaise stumbled into the room with his clothes on fire. He was able to slide in, half running, half crawling through the door. “They’re throwing fireballs! I’m hit!”
“Close the doors!” I said. The group closed the doors behind him just in time before several thuds and the crackle of fire hit the doors. There was a brief moment of silence. Then the attacks came again. It was slower this time but more precise. It blew the doors off one of its hinges but not enough to break it down. It swung wide open and closed again. The door held strong.
Hailey grabbed a blanket and started to smother the flames from Blaise’s shirt with it while screaming instructions to Blaise.
“Drop and roll! Drop and roll!” Hailey kept yelling at Blaise.
I went to help Kieran who was writhing in pain on the ground.
“Stay still, we need to get you to a hospital. Somebody call 911.” I pulled on his burned shirt to check.
“And say what? That we have three hooded men throwing magic fireballs at us?” Taylor said to me in disgust.
“It hurts!” screamed Kieran as he pushed my hand away.
“I don’t care what they say; we need to get them to a hospital!” I yelled back at Taylor. I didn’t have to be a doctor to know that it was bad. Even without taking the shirt off, I could tell the blisters had erupted and the wound was oozing blood. The charred edge of the shirt, outlining where the ball hit him, had stuck to the seeping mess. Kieran was still protesting heavily. Then, Kieran shrieked, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he passed out in my arms.
“Kieran! Kieran!” I called out but he didn’t answer.
“Look, I don’t have all the answers but Kieran and Blaise are seriously injured.” I got up and tried to move Kieran farther away from the door. “We need to get them to a hospital,” I continued. I was only partially successful in pulling Kieran away further.
I stood there looking at the chaos and mayhem around me. I didn’t have a clue what was going on. My brain refused to process my new reality. But I knew one thing: we would all die if we stayed there.
I placed Kieran’s arm around my shoulder and tried to move him again but he was far too heavy. “I can’t move him. Doctor, I need your help.”
The doctor marched over and knelt next to me. She pulled my hands by the wrists, letting Kieran’s body flop to the floor. She firmly held my hands in a position to hold something and then forced the box into my open palms. “The only thing you need to concentrate on is opening this box! Now do it.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. “What? Just in case you have not noticed, Kieran is unconscious and could be dead for all we know. Blaise has burns all over his body and all you are thinking about this box!” I yelled. I yanked my hands away from Dr. McGrath’s and unceremoniously dropped the box on the floor. I went back to helping Kieran
but he was still not responding.
That should tell her where my priorities lie.
I shook his head a little to wake him up but there was no movement.
Maybe feeling guilt or maybe some embarrassment, the doctor knelt beside me. “Here, let me check.” She took Kieran’s hand from me and checked his wrist for a pulse. Then she moved to press her fingers against his carotid. Nothing. She pushed my hands aside and placed her head against his chest. She sat back up and without looking up she shook her head. “I can’t find a pulse... it could just be very faint. I can’t find a—”
“What do you mean? What are you saying?” I stammered, trying to grasp what she was trying to say without accepting what it means. Meanwhile, the others looked on in stunned disbelief. How could this be? This was just supposed to be a stupid detention. This is not going to happen. No one is going to die on me again. I got down on my knees and started to work on reviving Kieran. I did everything I remembered from my CPR class. I counted the right count; I pushed on the right spot. I did it over and over again, but nothing happened. He remained there burned, bloodied, and immobile.
For the second time that day, the doctor took control of my hands and pushed them away from Kieran. She gently placed two of her fingers against Kieran’s neck. “I still can’t find a pulse. I’m sorry but there’s nothing more we can for him right now.” Doctor McGrath pulled away from Kieran’s body and sat on her ankles.
She was quiet for a few moments then Dr. McGrath looked at me. “No! He’s not dead!” I tried to reach Kieran again but this time, the doctor stopped me from touching his body.
“You don’t understand. We can’t stay here. They will kill us all like they killed your parents. Like they killed Kieran.”
She got up and dragged me away from Kieran’s body. “We need to go!”
“Go where?” Hailey asked. “There is only one entrance and one exit to this library.”
Bam! Bam! Bam! We stopped and looked at the door; a horrifying reminder we were still under attack. We can’t stay. We have no way to fight them.
“Follow me!” the doctor said.
CHAPTER 8
The Sanctuary
The doctor stood in front of the great fireplace with her feet flat on the ground. She closed her eyes and put her fists to either side. She started to chant and then her hands opened up with blue crackling energy emanating from them.
She did a very graceful movement that looked like some kind of dance. Then, in a very soft voice, she spoke a few words, pulled her hands in a circle, and made like she was forcing something from her hands towards the flame inside the fireplace. She kept her palms focused on the blaze. Within a few seconds, the red and orange fire turned to green.
“Let’s go. Follow me,” she said to us and walked straight into the green fire then stopped in the middle of the roaring fire.
I stifled a cry and was about to pull her out of the flames when I noticed she was not at all alarmed. In fact, her face didn’t show that anything peculiar was going on. She had her arms wide open like she was keeping elevator doors from closing.
I looked at my classmates and I knew we were all expecting her to burst in flames any minute but she just stood there.
After a short moment, she ordered, “What are waiting for? Get in! Now!”
We started to scramble and got ready to get into the fireplace with her.
But I couldn’t let it go. I had to ask, “What about Kieran?”
“We cannot do anything for him. We really need to go.”
Several more fireballs hit the wooden door. Then the last hinge broke and there was a loud crash. The door gave way.
“Oh no! Hailey, help me!” Taylor cried.
I was still in shock. I couldn’t imagine leaving Kieran.
“C’mon, Abi! Leave him! We have to go!” Hailey called out to me.
I looked behind me and saw that Hailey and Taylor were already helping Blaise into the fire.
“I can’t hold this doorway open forever, Abi. We need to leave him,” the doctor said, her voice straining from the effort.
I said a quick goodbye to Kieran, grabbed the box and my backpack, and ran into the fire. One minute, I was stepping on regular stone of the library fireplace, the next, I was swirling around and around as if I was being sucked into a whirlpool of pure energy. The green of the fire started to meld into the blackness like lava lamps in the dark. I checked to see if the doctor was still behind me. I saw her form moving through the undulating globs of green and black. Every so often our bodies were pulled by the centrifugal force of a passing globule and we went fast but most times it felt like we were just floating along a lazy river without a boat, in the dead of night.
I couldn’t tell how long we traveled in that tunnel. There was no indication of the passing of time, until I noticed that one of the green globules started to make way for ordinary sunlight. After another spin in the tunnel, I saw Hailey walk out of the virtual tunnel and onto solid ground. I expected to be disoriented, even seasick from the trip but I was pleasantly surprised to see that somehow my equilibrium went back to normal as I also emerged from the tunnel.
“Wha-what was that, Doctor?” I asked.
“We call it the River of Time. It has many branches. The green blobs you saw are portals to different times and places. But you need to know the portals to enter to sail in it. It’s like setting the GPS to an address before the car leaves.”
I was still too in awe to say anything more about it so I just nodded.
We entered a room exactly like the library but older, richer, and more elaborate. Gold leafing covered the mirrored walls. Vases of intricate designs in precious stones lined the walls. Above us, were dome-like ceilings with beautiful vibrant paintings of fairies and demons in battle.
We gaped at the opulence of our new surroundings. I walked over to the gold-gilded table that shone in the flickering light of the silver candelabras. I set the box down. At the edge of the table I stared at the book sitting in the middle of it. The cover was glimmering with an intricate pattern of silver over thick velvet. It was studded with black and purple gems. I picked it up and opened it. The writing somehow looked familiar but when I tried to read it, I couldn’t. It was not like any language I know. I found myself in awe of this version of the library.
Hailey was standing by a big flower vase with a three feet tall arrangement. She said, “It feels like our old library but at the same time it doesn’t. Look at these flowers. I’ve never seen anything like them before.”
I didn’t have to come closer; I recognized the distinctive scent and beauty of those flowers from my mother’s old garden. “Those are Sampaguita, Cattleya, Camia, and Palong ng Tandang. I can tell you one thing, they’re not from Oregon. I don’t really know where we are,” I said to no one in particular. I pulled one of the Sampaguitas out of the vase and ran the sturdy but feathery white petals against my cheek. I inhaled deeply to savor the sweet smell that somehow relaxes my mind. It brought back childhood memories of my mother in her garden. She told me all about the flowers she had in her collection. Sampaguita, the name was derived from a language from a far away land, Sumpa Kita, meaning I promise you. It was the symbol of hope and loyalty.
We could use both, right about now. I replaced the flower back in vase.
Everything about this place exuded opulence. The rugs were thick and dense, the tapestries bigger and more vibrant, the books were all in deep leather of various colors with bookmarks made of sparkling gems hanging from some of them.
It too had the same three-fireplace configuration in the middle, but unlike the intricate wood-carvings of the school library, the fireplace mantles here were made of black marble, laden with gems interspersed in intricate patterns of gold and silver. The crystal chandelier was two-three times larger than the one from the school. One would think the ceiling went on forever exce
pt for when the arches stemming from huge gothic columns holding them up were temporarily illuminated by the light of the fire, which I noticed had now gone back to the normal color of reddish-orange.
Hailey was the first to speak.
“What is this place?”
“We call this a Beylu a magical sanctuary. A place of safety,” answered the doctor.
“I have a few questions,” Hailey said, putting her hands on her hips and facing the doctor. “For starters, “Who’s “we”? Who the hell are you? Where are we? What is that box? And why are they trying to kill us?”
“Yes. Who are you?” I seconded Hailey’s question with more venom in my voice than I had anticipated.
“What do you mean? You know me, Abigail?” The doctor looked at me, pleading with her one good eye. It was hard to look at her. I felt guilty about my inability to sympathize despite her obvious painful condition. But I had to be true, if not now, when? I needed to get to the bottom of this.
“No, I don’t! You introduced yourself as a psychiatrist. You keep prodding me about this box! You keep insisting I know something I don’t! The people who killed my parents, they are out there and they came to you first! Now they’re after me! After us! Who are they? And who are you, really?”
Dr. McGrath stood there and said nothing. I wanted to feel sorry for her but my anger and frustration was overpowering my empathy for her.
“I don’t really care who you are. I don’t care who you all are!” screamed Taylor. “We should never have been involved. You brought us here and now they think we are with you. You need to set this right. Tell them we have nothing to do with her family, or you and this stupid box!”
Blaise pulled her to him as she started to sob in his chest, wincing from his burn. “It’s ok, Taylor. We will be ok. Don’t worry...”
The doctor looked at Blaise and started to walk away, shaking her head as if to say, “No, it’s not going to be ok”.
Hailey saw the doctor’s expression and pulled her back by her arms to face us.
“Oh no, you don’t get to get away so easy. You brought us here through that wormhole or whatever. You’re no psychiatrist! And by the way, what do you expect will happen when they find Kieran’s dead body in the library? We were all there. The police will question us all! I don’t know how you tricked us into being here but you need to get us out of this situation. We never asked to be brought here! Taylor is right; we are not part of your little Magic Murder Mystery Club.” With those last words she made a circle gesture that put Dr. McGrath and me in the same group.
The Obsidian Crown of the Lost Dominion Page 6