Chapter 8: HQ? Mall? Floating Lights? What?

 

CHAPTER 8:

 

“Uwaa~” I heard Lukas groan from behind me as I wretched into the toilet, tearing up. You must be surprised as to why this happened.

Well after seeing the Animal Planet scene back in that forest and meeting those two goons, (Michael and Lukas) would you be able to keep all that excitement (yeah, not really.) in you?!

Also, there are two reasons why I’m tearing up.

One is because of the horrible twisting on my stomach as I gave up my dinner. And two, I’m showing such an appearance in front of my little brother who must be having so much fun laughing at my face, and at two people I barely know.

Once my stomach had stopped shaking and my throat closed, I sighed with relief, quickly washing my face on the sink and hitting my forehead on the hard surface right after.

“This is….just. Ridiculous.” I growled under my breath as I heard the toilet flush beside me.

Looking up, I saw Skye staring down at me with a look that was half-disgusted and half-pitying

“What’s going on?” he mouthed. I shrugged my shoulders at him, not knowing what was going on myself. I really don’t. Even though Lukas said we would see each other again, I didn’t think it’ll be a few hours later.

“Well.” Lukas started. “Now that you got…that…out of your system…” Lukas muffled his guffaws unsuccessfully.

I whipped my head towards him who was now standing at the door with Michael and gave them my award winning glare.

Michael scoffed at my angry glance by looking disappointed with my glare and simply walked away, heading to the living room.

With a deep and very annoyed sigh, I straightened myself and Lukas’ eyes widened at the sound of my voice. Quickly, he scurried to the living room as well.

“It was a good thing you already barfed.” Michael said loudly, “After a few minutes, you’ll be happy you….let it go.”

The edge of my mouth twitched with annoyance as I carefully straightened myself.

“Alright. That’s it.” I growled under my breath.

 

To be truthful, I don’t know or care what this crazy person’s talking about. But whatever it is, it doesn’t sound pleasant. And I will not be a part of it.

As I turned finally feeling my blood boil, Skye stumbled back, his face paling as he saw my expression which must’ve been really bad.

“Get out.” I simply said in my monotone voice as I leaned on the doorway, staring at the two guys with a blank face.

I know they were just two simple words. But, I think we all know how hard a few words can hit. And I for one am proud to say that whenever I talk like this, everyone shuts their mouths.

But, apparently that was useless information to these guys. Unexpectedly, Lukas laughed loudly, throwing his head back as he leisurely crossed his arms, leaning his back on the couch. I blinked, frozen at his reaction.

Michael grinned form the side, pulling his head up in defiance and arrogance.

“You’re telling us to get out?” Lukas asked with supreme disbelief as he looked at me with that ‘Really??’ look.

I glared at him and the red haired guy laughed once more, this time getting to his feet.

“You can’t even get a Bunny out of your own house.” Michael said as Lukas shook his head disappointedly.

I blinked at them then glanced at Skye then at Christian, (Who was still tied up by the way) a very confused and surprised look on my face.

Did he just say there’s a rabbit in my house??

Christian knit his brows at me as he froze up, while Skye was already puzzlingly looking around the house, probably trying to look for the stray bunny.

“Bunny?” I asked, my tone slow and trying to make sure I heard that right.

There’s a bunny in our house?

At my question, both Michael and Lukas sighed with exasperation as they face palmed at the same time. I cocked my head back in disbelief.

“They don’t know what a Bunny is.” Lukas said in a matter-of-fact tone.

That finally made me snap.

“A bunny is an animal. A cute fuzzy little thing that is nothing like that thing back in the forest that almost made me want to die on the spot. And, I think I would know if such a cute animal went bouncing into my home.”

With my fast paced burst of anger, everyone stared at me with surprise as the silence made them freeze up. Except for Michael that is. Who scoffed loudly at me, making my jaw fall with utter shock and disbelief.

This b*****d.

Skye glanced at him, wide-eyed at his bold move. Even he knows I shouldn’t be annoyed after I talk fast and say everything on my mind.

But Michael apparently didn’t care about that since he walked towards me and slowly pulled his head down so we were eye to eye now.

“A Bunny is nothing like that piece of fluff you were muttering about.” He said. Suddenly, his eyes went dark and serious, almost making me pull back in intimidation.

“A Bunny is a small supernatural creature that spies on you.” Lukas informed.  “And, they’re called Bunny’s because they have very big ears that listen to everything you say. They’re small fries but they do a lot of damage to unknowing people such as you guys.”

Knitting my brows with skepticism, I was about to argue with him but Michael made my voice disappear like drying alcohol as he gave me a glare that rivaled mine and dad’s.

“Don’t try to be smart with us Cyreen.” He said in a deadly low voice, making me flinch.

“Because ever since those nightmares of yours started, you’ve already been pulled into our world. And whatever logic you try to think of to contradict what you’re seeing, that means nothing now. To be frank, all you know is useless.”

Everyone else was silent, frozen by the tension between me and Michael. Even Lukas refused to move an inch.

I blinked at him, taken back and very, very annoyed now.

 

I can take people calling me names, bullying me. But step into my comfort zone and talk to me like some arrogant jerk who knows everything and embarrass me like this, huh, you’ve got another thing coming.

Gritting my teeth, I just rolled my eyes, refusing to let myself lose my cool. And pulling my chin up, I walked towards Lukas.

“Where is it?” I asked, feeling my blood boiling in me as I stood as far as I can from Michael.

I knew Michael was a jerk but now, well. I’m speechless. As I kept my eyes averted from that jerk, I heard him scoff loudly with disbelief.

Lukas pursed his lips and clapped his hands together. “Well, it’s right under ya’.” He said with enthusiastically big eyes as he nodded towards my feet.

I knit my brows at him and quickly looked down. Once I did, I saw two long, plump scaly bottle shaped things under the carpet I was standing on.

But before I could see anything else, the small carpet disappeared from under my feet, making my heart jump as my feet were pulled along and I ended up falling my butt.

With wide and shocked eyes, I looked up to see Lukas was now holding up a tiny creature by the two long bottle shaped ears.

The little thing thrashed in Lukas’ hands, kicking its four, thin and slightly long legs in the air as it made little bird-like chirps.

I’ll say this-it looked nothing like a bunny or a bird. It kind of resembled a baby deer-a fawn. The only downside is that it didn’t have smooth brown fur and cute big eyes.

Instead it had black, shiny and scaly hide like that of a snake and large innocent blue eyes that really made me put my guard down.

But once I studied it more, I tensed again. its hooves were on tiptoe and had sharp ends that could probably stab your eye and pull it out, adding to that, it had two small but long canine teeth protruding from its long snout.

“This is a Bunny. And it’s been here for a long time actually.” Lukas said.

Right then, he started pinching the long ears, making the Bunny thrash again but once Lukas reached the topmost part of its ear, its large blue eyes popped wide as the pupils got smaller and sharp teeth appeared around its mouth.

“KYAAAAAA!” it cried, making Christian, Skye and me jump in surprise. That’s no rabbit.

In a second, it went limp and like the werewolf, it started to melt and soon, there was a pile of dirt on our floor.

“So, I’m not gonna give you a lesson about Solaris’ creatures just yet. Right now, we need to get to hq. ‘Cause, I can see some Shifters coming this way.” Lukas said as he glanced out our window.

“Mmf?!” Christian gasped. Quickly, Skye and I made our way to the window and once we looked out, I felt my heart drum crazier than ever.

Outside, standing on the quiet road were two more werewolves. Only these guys were smaller and looked more like dogs than scary half humans that want to rip us to shreds.

“Oh, right.” Michael grumbled as he craned his neck. Lukas glared up at him.

“Didn’t I tell you to take care of ‘em?” he growled. Michael laughed nervously, not saying anything else.

Lukas rolled his eyes and with long-legged strides, he snapped his fingers and the gag and ropes holding down Christian disappeared, letting him jump to his feet.

Before Christian could say anything, Lukas sped out of the door and once he disappeared, we all froze up to hear two very loud shrieks and growls followed by a “YAHOOOOO!”

Christian, Skye and I felt our blood drain while Michael simply leaned on the doorway, watching the scene downstairs.

I then ran to the window and froze to see another impossible thing.

 

Out on the road, Lukas was fighting head to head with the two werewolves. Only, unlike Christian and I, he had no such thing as 50/50 chances. In fact, the fight was one sided in favor of Lukas.

“Bring it on you balding dogs!” Lukas yelled, his voice echoing through the night.

Right then, he raised his arm and a long, giant black scythe appeared in his hand, making my jaw fall at the sight.

The weapon was very long, maybe half as long as the street light post. It also gleamed amazingly and at the end was a long, black curved blade, the top part of the blade decorated with black and thick wisps of smoke that made it look like the scythe was breathing.

“Whoa.” Skye gasped as he stared at the scythe, his eyes practically glowing with stars. He loved these kinds of things.

At the appearance of his weapon, Lukas’ red eyes started to glow excitedly and a smile twitched on his face.

 

With a howl, one of the werewolves lunged him with super speed, its mouth foaming as its jaws opened wide. But Lukas was faster. He jumped up the air and with an effortless swing of his long bladed scythe, he cut the werewolf into half and it burst into black sand.

“Wait, where’s the other one?” Skye asked loudly. At that, I saw Michael smirk before I turned back to Lukas.

As I looked around for the creature, I froze to see it had climbed up the building opposite of us and was hanging onto the long pipes.

Before any of us could warn Lukas, the werewolf jumped, it jaws wide open as its claws ripped through the air.

I was about to yell at Michael to do something but then Lukas smiled.

 

In a blur, Lukas snapped his fingers and above his free hand, a medium sized book with a leather cover appeared from thin air and snapped open. Lukas seemed to say something and the pages whipped towards a page.

The werewolf was only feet away but before it could attack, Lukas swiped it with the scythe but he only grazed the werewolf’s dark skin, making it bleed and jump back in surprise, a feral snarl ripping through its teeth as it slid across the wet road.

Lukas stared at the creature, his mouth moving quickly as if he were saying things.

“What’s he doing?” I asked as I watched with wide and bright eyes, feeling my blood pump adrenaline into my heart.

For some reason, I had the mad urge to jump into the fight. The same urge I had when Christian and I got ready to go boxing with the werewolf.

I glanced at Christian and smiled a bit to see the same look on his face as he gripped the windowsill, trying his best not to jump out probably.

I also saw Skye had the same expression but he wasn’t trying not to show it. Right now he was jumping in his seat.

Michael smirked at me. “He’s invoking a spell.” He said as he looked up at Lukas with pride. “Watch and learn newbies.”

We looked back at Lukas and right then, he whipped his free hand out to the werewolf. At the motion, a golden light emanated from his palm and the werewolf froze up, snarling at Lukas.

 

As Lukas shouted something, the werewolf howled in its place and fell to its knees, shaking. In a second, there was a small brown and black puppy sitting before Lukas, looking innocent and harmless.

With a lick of its nose, it padded away as if nothing happened. Michael chuckled and quickly walked out of the house, heading to the large balcony out in the middle of the building’s front side.

At that moment, me, Christian and Skye all took a deep breath, pulling back as the fight had come to an end.

“Whoa.” Christian muttered weakly.

“Yeah.” I replied. At seeing that fight, I finally felt my feelings jumble up.

I wanted to come with them. But then I didn’t want to. I wanted to come because, this is something new. Something maybe only we are experiencing. And I’m sure anyone would love that feeling of being first in something.

I honestly am happy about it. But then, I didn’t want to come because this is new. It’s something foreign to me. I know nothing about these creatures. And if I did, I wouldn’t be sure about my information.

 Adding to that, this battle was something straight out of a fantasy novel. I had no idea what just happened except that Lukas pulled out a long knife and got a new puppy.

“Cyreen.”

I looked up, seeing Skye and Christian staring at me, probably wanting to ask what we were gonna do. Were we going to come with these strangers, or just sit here and wait for more creepy things.

“I advise you guys to come with us.” Michael suddenly said, popping out from the side of the door and making me jump.

Lukas jumped up from the railings, his scythe still in hand and too close for me.

“Yeah. I’m sure you’re smart enough to know that more of these things are coming. And also, these werewolves are just shifters. About a level above Bunnies. And there are much scarier things out here in this country.” Lukas said pointedly.

I blinked at them, biting my nails as I thought. I glanced at Skye.

Lukas is right anyway. If more of the bigger werewolves come to us, I won’t know what to do. I don’t know spells, and the most threatening weapon I have is a rusty cutter in my pencil case.

Staring into my brother’s large and anxious eyes, I sighed deeply, pulling my head down in defeat.

Without my answer, Lukas grunted. “Alright, that’s that. Let’s go!”

Before I could protest about my dad not knowing anything about this, Lukas jumped through the window, pushing us all out of the house and shutting the lights then locking the door with my key.

Thinking about it, how’d he even get that without me knowing?

Once we were out, Lukas pushed us to the large balcony which looked nothing special. He then put us in place at the middle of the balcony and snapped his fingers, making his weapon disappear.

I looked back at our doorway. Right then, I heard Skye gasp from behind me. Turning, I saw the horrified look on his face.

“MY DS!” he yelled.

I rolled my eyes as I face palmed. Before he could run back, Lukas tapped on the tiled floor twice. As he did, my eyes widened to see the tiles rippling like water as he did.

Lukas smirked at us. “Falling~”

 

Before I could get what he said, the floor disappeared from under us and we all fell through a dark gaping hole.

As I gasped and Lukas yelled: “WAHOO!” through the air, that familiar tingly feeling in my stomach happened like whenever you’re in a rollercoaster going that’s going to swoop down. But all this only lasted for five second.

I suddenly felt myself going horizontal, my body unable to keep itself upright.

Right then, I hit a cold concrete floor face first and the numbing in my body started.

“Ow.”

Turns out that wasn’t the last of my pains. Before I could move, Skye fell on top of me. Right before Christian and at that, I felt my lungs get squished into pancakes.

Lukas and Michael on the other hand fell through the air and landed perfectly on their two feet. The force going back up from their heels and making them bob gracefully like cats.

“Truly new kids.” Lukas scoffed. “If you’d been here longer you’d be able to control your own gravity while travelling.”

I wanted to ask what he just said but I digress. Something heavy was on me. Literally.

“Please….” I wheezed. “Get off my back.” I hissed. With a satisfied snicker, Skye pulled off from me along with Christian who had the decency to help me up.

As I wobbly got up, my jaw fell to see we were in a completely other world.

 

We were in the middle of a large and very wide hallway with thick, tall golden pillars supporting the ceiling which was so high, I couldn’t even see it.

I knit my brows. “We couldn’t have fallen that much.” I thought.

But as I looked around more, my previous thought had been crushed into tiny pieces.

The place was beautiful.

And when Lukas said headquarters, I imagined a steely, secretive place filled with guys in black suits, labs and creepy creatures roaming around in leashes. But this was the complete opposite.

The place we were currently in seemed like one of those malls for rich people.

Polished marble floors, the buzz of crowds, never ending shops with sliding glass doors on each side of us, their shopkeepers busy with either tidying up inside or helping out customers. Adding to all that, it had that expensive smell to it. I can’t describe it but I guess the scent ‘Expensive’ can be a good name. There were even some well-known cafés as we passed by.

“Was that a Starbucks?!” Skye asked in an excited whisper.

But, what was different about this place was that it spelled other worldly. Since first, after all the shops we’ve passed, I’ve never seen a clothes shop, a music shop or even a grocery store. Every shop on each side of us only sold tons and tons….of books.

Yes. This is officially my haven.

The books varied in types. There were old ones, new ones, big, small and there were even tiny ones I’d think were enough for mice to read. Some shops even had simple walls that were filled with holes, storing scrolls of all ages.

We weren’t the only people here though. Other people roamed around looking like rich teens or wealthy business people as they held large shopping bags (?) with their arms, probably containing things like knives or books.

I’ll tell you this, they didn’t seem normal at all. Sure they seemed like the wealthiest people, but that wasn’t it.

They didn’t wear office clothes or black suits. Instead they seemed like they were going to a cosplay convention.

Some even seemed like they escaped from the early days in London wearing formal suits.

One guy I saw wore a purple pin striped suit, reminding me of the great villain of comic books- Joker. Though this guy didn’t have a smiling face. He looked pretty grumpy as he led a very big and bossy looking Doberman on a leash.

And there was also a pair of teen boys. One of them wore black pants tucked into thick black combat boots and a white shirt hidden under heavy looking pads of steel armor covering his shoulders, chest and back. Along with that, he had a long spear strapped on his back.

The other boy seemed much more normal. He wore brown knee length shorts, red combat boots and a simple white sleeveless shirt.

They were both heading into a shop selling books bound in leather and cages that had fox-like puppies quietly sleeping in them.

After seeing tons more people carrying weapons of all sorts and wearing weird clothes, I finally gave up on figuring out what this place was.

 

“Where is this?” I finally asked out loud as I looked up at the ceiling, realizing that this bright place was lit by floating balls of white light. Like fireflies. Only some of them were the sizes of basket balls.

“Didn’t I say already?” Lukas asked as he looked around the shops, seemingly looking for something. “This is Headquarters.”

Skye raised his brow skeptically. “This is your headquarters?” he asked.

 I noticed, my brother wasn’t acting like Christian or me. Both of us were still trying to believe all this is happening and we both felt clueless.

 Skye on the other hand seemed too happy and excited and he didn’t even bother to bombard me with questions I won’t be able to answer. Instead, he’s taking everything in very well like a little kid.

“Well,” Lukas started. “This is just the entrance.”

I cocked my head back a bit. This is just the entrance?! I can’t even see the end of this hallway!

I sighed heavily. Too many questions, feeling dizzy.

“Tell us first, what is this place? And please, explain.” I growled as a big white cockatoo flew past me.

Lukas sighed next to me, glancing down to look at my eyes.

“This is simple the place where everyone gets their supplies. Spell books, armor, clothes, weaponry and pets.” Lukas explained.

“That’s all there is to this place. But for rookies like you, this is sorta the opening ceremony.” He chuckled.

“Stop being mysterious.” Christian finally groaned.

Lukas chuckled at him. “Sorry kid. But, never fear! We’re almost near HQ itself. So for now, stop asking questions and just relax.” He said, wiggling his arms around as he tried to look ‘relaxed’. Rolling my eyes at him, I decided he was right.

It’s better not to know stuff right now. My brain can only take so much.

I glanced at the two boys next to me. Skye was his happy self. His eyes bright and wide with excitement as a giant brown and black Great Dane without a collar or leash passed by, giving my brother’s outreached hand a kind lick before prodding away. I scoffed at him. He’s having the time of his life.

But Christian was one thing-Frustrated. As we walked ahead, he kept staring down at the floor then looked back up again, his bros knit up as his eyes kept his guard up. Well, I can’t not agree with him.

 

Right now we’re heading to a place no normal human has ever seen, for all possibilities, it could be a castle filled with moats and crocs. Apart from that, I’m not sure about myself and what I’m experiencing. Also, my dad is probably at home right now, calling the cops and trying to find his lost children.

But there was still that excited part of me. Like Skye, I was still excited to be in a place we only thought existed in video games or novels.

Anyway, Lukas did promise to tell us everything. And after saving us from a werewolf and not doing anything bad to us, I trust him now. (But I still hate Michael.)

With a sigh, I looked ahead, already seeing two gigantic and tall gold and steel doors.

“We’re here.” Lukas said and glanced at us from the corner of his eye. “Don’t worry. After today, you’ll wish you’ve known about this part of you sooner.” He said and held up his palm.

Once he did, I froze to see a glimpse of a familiar symbol on his hand. It had the same color as his hand only lighter. The symbol for forever-Infinity.

As he held up his hand to the giant gates, the symbol glowed brightly. As I looked up, I froze to see the gates shimmer like a mirage from the middle and outwards towards all directions.

Michel raised his hand too. But he had a different symbol on his palm. They seemed like Japanese or Chinese but it was a familiar thing to see. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Shaking me out of my thoughts, Michael glanced at me then for a split second, I saw a bit of kindness and sweetness in them. Something that made me flinch and feel warmth spread on my cheeks for a moment.

He smirked at me. “Get ready for crazy.”