Chapter 20: The Third Day

   Again, Rebecca was the first to wake up.  She yawned, and stretched out her arms.  Daylight seeped through the trees, and Rebecca shielded her eyes, blinking tiredly.  She could hear birds singing, having been woken by the light several hours ago.

   “Ah, you’re awake,” Anonni said.  “That’s good, we can begin shortly.”

   He handed her an apple, and Rebecca realised how long it had been since she had last eaten.

   “I have food with me,” she said, finding a packet of crisps in her bag.  “Though an apple is healthier.”

   She thanked Anonni, and ate the apple and crisps.

   “And, will you be wanting this back?” Anonni said, holding up the Locket.

   “I can’t say I do,” she replied.  “But it feels like mine…” Anonni through it at her, and she caught it.  How poignant it was, to be reunited with it at the very place it had been taken from her.

   “I plan on it being destroyed soon,” Anonni said.  “Even if I don’t know how to start.  But you won’t need to worry about losing much more of your life.”

   Soon afterwards Carrie also awoke, and Anonni had an apple for her too.

   “I want to go home,” she said after minutes of silence.  “But the last time I went home, the Knight attacked me.”

   “You couldn’t care less about the locket, could you?” Anonni said.  “You’re only here out of fear, not loyalty.” 

   Rebecca said nothing.  She knew Carrie would rather be anywhere but there.  Carrie didn’t bother to deny it.

   “What’s your plan to destroy the locket then?” she asked Anonni.

   “I don’t have one,” he replied.  “Would you be so kind and suggest one?”

   “But you have… I don’t know, experience!” Carrie exclaimed.

   “Each Interimo is different!”

   “Maybe this will help…” Rebecca said, holding Sam’s letter.  “This was written by Paul’s Dad, who had the Locket before me.” 

   Anonni read it, and Rebecca went on to explain the message she’d found.

   “The poor man…” Anonni sighed.  “Losing one’s soul is as traumatic as I had expected.”

   “Why did that happen?” Rebecca asked him.  “How was it possible?”

   “I can only guess…” he muttered in reply.  “But it looks to me… Sam’s soul was trying to contact you, to help you.  ”

   “How could it?” Rebecca cried.  “He lost it!”

   “Interimo don’t destroy your soul,” he explained.  “They store it.  That’s how they have so much power!”

   “Then, could we contact his soul, and learn more?” Rebecca asked.

   “We could have, if it still existed.”

   “But, you said-”

   “Remember that explosion of light yesterday?  I think the locket was in danger; more danger than it had ever been in.  When in an extreme situation, an Interimo can eject and destroy all the souls it has captured and convert them into raw energy to defend itself.  Usually there aren’t enough souls to do much; this locket must have so many.”

   “But, the Locket, I think, tried to convince me to enter Edward’s house,” Rebecca continued.  “If that was Sam, why would he want to lead me to death?”

   “I doubt that was Sam,” Anonni went on to explain.  “That would have been the locket, trying to eliminate any threat of you reclaiming it.”

   Rebecca thought, searching her brain for all the other questions she had.  Carrie had gone quiet.

   “While I’m asking questions, here’s another,” she said.  “Several months ago, the school burnt down.  It wasn’t the locket, but that was the first time I saw the Knight.  Did it burn down the school?”

   “Probably,” Anonni answered.  “As you’ve no doubt discovered, the locket can’t be burnt, so burning down the school would make it’s retrieval of the locket easier.  Ah, that Knight intrigues me…”

   He went quiet, and put his head in his hands.  “There’s only one way… should I risk it…?”

   “Risk it?  Risk what?” Rebecca asked.

   “You’re not putting us in danger again!” Carrie cried.

   “No, no, of course not,” Anonni explained.  “Even without any captured souls, an Interimo still possesses a massive amount of energy.  Now I have the locket here, I’ll need less Interimo energy to do this.”

   “What?  I don’t understand,” Rebecca said.

   “Okay, the last Interimo I met, we destroyed.  We have ways of harnessing the energy generated when an Interimo is destroyed, which we did.  I then used that to travel into this world, when we detected this Interimo here.  I’ve used bits of the remaining energy to call home and keep my boss updated, and now there’s only a bit left.  But, with the help of the locket, I may be able to use up what I’ve got to gain one final clue.”

   “And what is that clue?” Rebecca asked.

   “Time travel.”

 

   The city felt a different place.  This couldn’t possibly be the same place the boys had spent most of their lives.  But it was.  Having so much on one’s mind takes all the joy out of life.  Billy and Paul were only just discovering this.

   They were travelling to the other side of the city.  Neither had gained much sleep over the last night, so they had decided to set out early.  This wasn’t at all a good idea, but after having spent over an hour searching the forest and it’s surrounding areas for Anonni, this was all they could do.  They were certain that they hadn’t even looked through half of the forest, but they would end up wasting too much time in there.  If this were to work, they would at least have directions.

   “Barry or Mum had better not see me,” Paul said, slightly worried.  “I’m dead when I return, for just leaving like that.”

   “At least you have parents,” Billy reminded him.  “Which reminds me… Rebecca and I are orphans that didn’t return to their home, so the police are no doubt looking for us.  It’s probably in both of our best interests not to be found.”

   They slowly made their way down the gravel road leading to Paul’s home.  It was quite unfortunate for Paul that Anonni had chosen to live in a hut in a small clump of trees near his house.  But the road was clear, and no cars passed them for the entire journey.

   “I think we move into the trees here,” Billy said shortly afterwards, and turned to the left.

   “No, it was further up here,” Paul argued.  “I’ve walked along this road for almost every day in the last few months, I think I know where we were.”

   Billy gave up and followed Paul into the trees.  It wasn’t a particularly large forest area, and nowhere near the size of the forest near Edward’s home, but it was still large enough to spend half an hour looking through it for something, which the boys found out.

   “You know the area, do you?” Billy said annoyed although slightly amused, after they still had no luck.

   “I didn’t go into the forest much,” Paul admitted.

   But eventually, they found Anonni’s hut.

   “So, it’s a blue cylinder we’re looking for,” Billy reminded himself out-loud. 

   “Even if we do find it, we don’t know how to use it!” Paul complained. 

   “It can’t be that hard!”

   But as it turned out, whether they could use an Interimo detector became irrelevant.  After searching through the hut, there was no sign of anything remotely similar to it.  Billy slammed his fist onto the only table in anger, smashing it.

   “What now?” he cried out.  “There’s nothing here of Anonni’s, so he won’t return!  Where can we find them now?”

   “What about that Edward?” Paul suggested.  “What if he captured them, or… killed them?”

   “No, he couldn’t have,” Billy said.  “The way he ran from the Knight; there’s no way he could kill Anonni.”

   “Unless Anonni didn’t see him coming?”

   Billy sat on the wooden floor in despair.  Only then did he remember something of vital importance.

   “They are in the forest, after all!” Billy cried, after pulling the second locket out of his pocket.