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Post by Areelah Gregorie on Apr 17, 2011 8:35:33 GMT -5
Chapter 1: How about a prank?
I was walking up the path to my family's house. Well, not really ours, technically. It really belonges to my Dad's employer, Gerald Blakewell. In my opinion, the fattest, most conceited person ever. My dad is the caretaker of Blakewell's large estate. He takes care of the gardens and does all the outdoor jobs. Blakewell has two kids. Twins, actually. Their names were Isabell and Drake. They were just as conceited and selfish as there dad. It was near the end of term and school was out for summer at the end of the week. But of course Isabell and Drake were coming home from boarding school today.
Great, I thought just great. What a fun summer we're going to have together.
I went into the house and found my brother Danny lounging on the couch glued to the tv. I should probably mention that he's not my real brother. He's my adopted brother.
"Hey Danny." I said. "Hey Nita." he said and turned off the tv. "Why do you look so glum?" "Isabella and Drake come back today." He instantly looked a little more alert. "I see the problem here. You never see the perfect opportunities for a prank!" he heaved a dramatic sigh. "They're not back yet are they?" "No. Where are you going with this?" I asked suspiciously. "My dear sister, you need to broaden the possibilities. Blakewell is at a conference all morning, so we can play a really good one this time, while making it look like it's not our fault!" "He's going to blame us no matter who did it." "So?" "Fine. You win, I'm in." I said and smiled. "What do you have planned?" I asked. "Nothing yet............but I was thinking about messing with their boombox that's out by the pool." he said. "But I'm still working on it." Danny's 11 and great at pulling pranks, but horrible at getting out of them. It almost always ends up with me getting both of us out of it somehow.
"Well," Danny said, "I'm just going to go upstairs and um, grab a few things." I waited downstairs while he grabbed his toolbag. Danny's footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. He grinned at me. "Ready?" he asked. "Yeah, sure." I said. I was already trying to think of an excuse to get us out of this one.
We walked casually over to the pool and I looked around, and seeing no one, climbed the large tree that stands over a few yards away from the pool. Here, I had the perfect lookout post. Danny continued to casually walk around the pool until he got to the big boom box that sits under the porch. There's this patio thing that is under the porch, and that's where he was headed. He glanced in my direction and I gave him the 'thumbs-up' all clear sign. He went around to the back of the gigantic boom box and unzipped his toolbag. He took out his screwdriver and started taking the backing off. "Mhmm, put that here, this there." Danny muttered to himself as he rearranged the wires. About 5 minutes later he stepped back and looked pridefully at his handiwork. Then he inserted the last piece, a sound chip, and screwed the backing into place. "Not too, bad." he whispered, "not too bad." Then he looked over in my direction. I gave him a look that said 'Hurry up already! We need to go before some one sees us!'
He packed up his toolbag and casually sauntered back the way we had come. I jumped down from the tree, landing softly, and followed.
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Post by Areelah Gregorie on Apr 21, 2011 19:53:29 GMT -5
Chapter 2: Monster consequences
Danny and I crashed onto the couch once we got home and gave each other a high-five. We both knew it was tradition for Isabell and Drake to bring friends home with them for the first two weeks or so of summer vacation. The first thing they usually did was hang in the pool. "I wonder who they brought with them this year." I mused out loud. It was always somebody different every year. These kids weren't nice enough to have permanent friends. "Eh, don't know, don't care." he said. "I just want to see the look on their faces when their boom box automatically alternates between 'mary had a little lamb' and that song from Cinderella." he said with a grin. "Si!" I exclaimed. "You did install the hidden video camera, didn't you?" I asked. "Yes! How could I ever forget that crucial part?" he said looking at me. "Here, I'll go ahead and turn on my laptop." he said. He lifted the top and the screen flickered to life. His laptop is an older version, not very new. He found it in someone's trash and fixed it up and now it was running fine.
We watched with our breaths held as Drake and Isabell approached the pool with their cronies in tow. Drake's friend was huge with ripped muscles, but don't get me wrong he was feo, uuggly. There was also something really weird about him, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Isabell's friend was a pretty blonde in a bikini that was almost as skimpy as Isabell's.
The boys settled into cushioned chairs at the side of the pool while the girls settled into some pool chairs for a tanning session. Drake picked up a remote control and turned it toward the boombox. Danny and I where frozen in place. He turned it on and pop music started blaring from the speakers. I looked at Danny and whispered, "It's not supposed to do that!"
"Yes it is." he answered. "It's all part of my ingenius plan."
We waited for another minute and our efforts where rewarded. Just at the crescendo of the most curse words in the song started, it started playing 'mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. mary had a little little lamb, it's fleece was white as snow.' The ugly ripped guy got up and gave some kind of monstrous roar. I looked at Danny and said, "We're in trouble." "Oh yeah, ya think?!" he said. On the tv screen we saw Drake get up and yell "It's those stupid Sanchez kids!!" and then he pointed to our house and yelled "get them!!" Danny packed up his laptop and we ran out the back door. We got to the street and stopped. "Where do we go?" I asked. "Um......that way!" Danny said and pointed. The weirdo was right behind us. He chased us away from the estate and into the hills surrounding the place. I saw the ruins of some old stone structure and we aimed for it. We collapsed against the other side of the wall. The thing, as that's what I'd decided to call it was no longer in sight. I looked at Danny and said "I think we got in over our heads this time." He sighed. "Yeah." he said then got up and peered over the wall. "Coast seems clear." he said, "Ready to head back?" I shivered. "Danny?" I asked. "Yeah?" "That guy wasn't normal." "I know." "Maybe we should go and tell somebody." "Who'd we tell? Nobody would believe us." "I would." said a new voice from behind us that scared us out of our witts.
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Post by Areelah Gregorie on May 6, 2011 14:53:44 GMT -5
Chapter 3: Joey.....the goat
We whirled around. "Hey, sorry I, I know I just popped up, but I'm Joey. I go to your school." he said. Danny and I exchanged a glance. "Ok......um, that doesn't really explain why you'd believe us." I said. What the heck was he doing up here anyways? Nobody ever came up here. Something about it being dangerous........but those were just rumors. Old rumors. "What are you doing up here anyways?" Danny asked him. "Isn't it supposed to be haunted?" "Yes, though maybe not with ghosts." Joey said looking around nervously while shuffling his feet. "I, I think we should go talk about this you know, somewhere um, safer." he said. "Not until you tell us who you are and what you're doing up here." I said. I didn't believe one word this dude was saying. He talked about it being haunted up here like it was actually haunted. Bit scary. "Not now, no time!" he said. "Look we have to get out of here." "Or what?" I asked. "Bad things, ok?" he said. He was growing more jittery by the minute. "Oh, I can smell them. I can smell them." he muttered nervously. "Smell what?" Danny asked. Even I was looking around now. I didn't know what Joey was talking about, but it was starting to get to me. "You know that cyclo- I mean thing was chasing you? Well he could be up here, somewhere in the mist, with his little friend, who I really don't want to meet!" Joey whispered. "We have to go NOW. Just follow my lead." he said and took off his shoes. Where those goat feet? My mind must be playing tricks on me, I thought. Then I heard Danny gasp. Ok, they must be goat feet then, and this is just a bad dream. Joey caught us staring at his feet.....or hooves. "Don't look at the feet, just follow me down the hill and be quiet." he whispered. We where about halfway down the slope when we heard crashing sounds behind us. Joey turned as white as a sheet. "What is that?" I whispered, afraid of the answer. Joey gulped. "It could be something called a minotaur." he mumbled miserably. After that fun statement we all started running.
We reached the bottom of the hill and Joey pulled us toward a clump of trees. "Crouch low." he whispered. He pulled something out of his pocket and gave it to Danny. "If it comes too close, stab it with this." It was a bronze knife. Danny's eyes bulged. He was speechless with wonder that someone actually gave him a sharp object. I admit I was a little jealous. I mean, I'm older, more responsible and totally ready to throw a pity party that I hadn't gotten a knife. Joey disappeared into the mist and we heard some really weird music....pipes maybe? Suddenly the monster became visible, and it was charging down the hill. It was the ugliest thing I'd ever seen; believe me, close-ups are totally unnecessary. It even had a bronze ring through it's nose. I noticed Danny studying it intensly. "What is it?" I asked him. "It doesn't move like it should." he said. I had no idea what he meant. "It's like a robot that needs re-oiling." he whispered. Then I realized what he was saying. It was shining like sculpted bronze. "An automaton." I breathed. The monster stopped and appeared to be listening intently. "Ok, you figure out some way to hold it still." Danny whispered. "I'll sneak up behind it and unscrew some bolts and hopefully it's head will come flying off." Danny pulled a screwdriver out of his pocket and slowly started inching his way behind the minotaur. I'd forgotten he always had some type of tool in his pocket. Now, I thought, how in the world am I supposed to stop this thing? I envisioned thick, curly vines wrapping themselves around the monster, holding it in place. Wishful thinking. I thought with a sigh. Then vines shot up out of the ground and started winding themselves around it's legs and I felt a huge wave of dizziness. I willed the vines to keep holding it still, though honestly I was freaking myself out. And what had caused the mist to go away?
Then Danny came up behind it and went to work with his screwdriver. After a few seconds, the head fell off and rolled away. I looked at my brother with admiration. Then Joey turned up. "Nice of you to join us." I said pointedly. "Who do you think made the vines wrap around him and the mist disappear?" he asked. Um, I did, I thought. What was going on here? "Ok, let's get out of here." Joey said. "Where?" I asked. "We can't exactly go home, and I thought minotaurs were supposed to stay in Greek mythology! Along with cyclopses for that matter." "Um, I can explain that. Later." Joey looked really awkward, like he knew he could tell us something, but he wasn't supposed too.
Hours later, on a train, I said "At least tell us where we're going." Joey looked around as if to make sure nobody was listening and whispered "Camp." As if that explained it all. He was still really fidgety, like he was afraid some monster was going to turn up, which made no sense because we'd left the automaton and the cyclops back home in California. Finally I just settled for looking out the window wondering where in the world camp was, because Joey had been keenly afraid of saying the location.
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Post by Areelah Gregorie on Jul 27, 2011 8:54:16 GMT -5
Chapter 4: I'm off to meet St. Louis
Finally, the train reached it's destination. St. Louis, Missouri. "Are we there yet?" Danny asked for like the millionth time. "Have you noticed we reached the train station?" I asked impatiently.
"Ok," Joey said, "Now let's head for the airport. None of you have a fear of heights, right? Good." Danny grumbled something about being bossed around and I shrugged. Then we all piled into the taxi.
We got off at the airport and got in line. I looked around, not really sure what was going on. I needed time to think. "I'll be right back." I said. "Just need to use the restroom." As I headed toward the bathrooms, I noticed a horrible smell. It smelled....rotten. I looked around and no one else seemed to notice it.
I went into the bathroom. It was empty. Now I was really scared. Airport bathrooms were never empty. I turned around to walk out and someone covered my face with a sweet smelling cloth and I felt myself falling.......then darkness.
I groaned and opened my eyes. I was tied up in a corner of a small semi-dark room. 'Ok.' I thought, 'i'm just going to close my eyes, and wake up in my own room and this is just going to be a bad dream.' It didn't work. I was still tied up in a strange place. So I squirmed into a sitting position and bottled down the panic that was rising in my throat. It was time to be serious. I was certain that I'd made vines shoot out of the ground and immobilize a minotaur. Could I do it again? Use plants to free myself? Hmmm....... I couldn't exactly make a knife out of a plant, so why not try an acidic plant? No, no plant had enough acid to burn through these ropes. I was at a loss. I was just going to have to wait and see what was going on.
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Post by Areelah Gregorie on Aug 10, 2011 7:36:25 GMT -5
Chapter 5: Why does it always have to be me?
I heard footsteps outside the door and lay back down and feigned unconsciousness. Then I heard voices. "Alright, you get the girl and follow me to the car." "Whateves." the second voice grumbled. I heard someone open the door. Then someone with strong arms blindfolded me, picked me up and carried me out. After a few minutes of lefts and rights too numberable to count, I was thrown unceremoniously into the backseat of a car. "Hey, be careful with that, cupckake! The boss wanted her unscathed." said a grouchy voice from the other side of the car. "Oh, and did he want a big fancy ribbon on her too?" voice number two said (whom i'd decided to call Slime, because that's exactly what his voice sounded like). "Don't sass me Mikey, or I'll make sure you make it back to Tartarus in record time!" Cupcake growled. "Humph. I'd like to see you try." muttered Mikey (Slime.) Just then the car started and i didn't catch the reply. The anger coming off those two was like stepping outside in 100 degrees plus humidity.
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Post by Areelah Gregorie on Oct 15, 2011 10:11:59 GMT -5
Chapter 6: I'm the Salad Course
So, while I was being bumped around in the backseat, the monsters finally got to talking about who would get to eat me. "Mhm, Demeter food! I call her." Mikey (Slime) said with a horrible sound like he was licking his lips. "Fool." Cupcake growled. "I'm getting her!"
They kept on arguing for about five minutes before another voice said, "Nobody gets to eat her but me, and I have some plans for her first!" Suddenly they both got quiet. "Yes, you imbeciles, you heard me! Now get your lazy butts over here."
"Yes, yes boss!" Mikey and Cupcake said at the same time, their voices now having a much more supplicant, patronizing tone. "Of course, right away boss!"
Oh, brother, I thought. Now what?
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