This part of the story continues on from Definitely RA.

___

The book. The trunk.

It was just like the movie!

Here I am, not even able to watch a silly scary movie and now it’s being reenacted right in my own neighborhood. No, that’s crazy, thought Kate, it’s just a old trunk.

But why is the book there?

Julie’s words burst in on her thoughts. “KATE! Are you even listening to me?! Let’s just run to the door.”

“I was just thinking,” said Kate hoping her voice didn’t sound as shaky as she felt. “Okay, we both know that this is the best and spookiest house, so let’s just save it for last. It will be the best stop with the best candy to round out our awesome night”.

Thankfully, Julie agreed and didn’t notice that I was spooked. Hopefully, it would be time for curfew before we got a chance to hit the haunted library.

Trying to push the dumb old props from her mind, she shouted, “first one to the end of the block, gets all the Snickers!”  as she darted off.

And so they continued on, hitting up all the houses for candy, getting compliments on their costumes and seeing friends. The trunk and Haunted Happenings in New England were the last thing on Kate’s mind.

Until they reached the old Martinez house.

The house was on the market for the longest time until it was finally snatched up by an old woman. No one knew her name. She didn’t talk to anyone and never answered the door. (Not even for Kate’s mom who thought herself the neighborhood welcoming committee and felt quite snubbed and made sure everyone knew. But that is a whole other story.) But every evening, you could see her through the window rocking back in forth in her rocking chair.

But today something was different. The porch light was on and the second Julie and Kate started to walk past, the door opened.

“You there. Come here.”, said a scratchy voice, “I have something.”

The girls looked at each other unsure if they should walk up the steps.

“Let’s just do it. Then I can finally tell my mom she talked to someone, you know how she can be”, whispered Kate.

Julie giggled at the thought of Kate’s mother ranting and raving about how unfriendly the new neighbor was and agreed.

The walked up the creaky steps and there she was. A tiny wisp of a woman, stark white hair in a pale yellow dressing robe.

Julie pipped up, “Hi! I’m Julie and this is Ka—”

She was cut off by the woman dropping something in each of their pillowcases and slammed the door on them.

“RUDE!” shouted Julie as she was digging around in her now almost full pillowcase. She pulled out an apple. “Really?! An apple? Who does that?!”

Kate rooted around in her bag when she felt something hard and metal. It kind of felt like a — no, it couldn’t be.

The old woman had dropped a key in her bag.

An ancient iron key.

If you think Kate and Julie should try to open the trunk in the haunted library, click here.
If you think Kate and Julie should pass the key on to someone else, click here.

This part of the story continues from 3 Carnations.

***

Still skeptical, Xinni hesitated in following Jax.  This was Jax, her Jax, why would he lie to her? He wouldn’t, she decided so she reached for his outstretched hand and hoped she was making the right choice.

Jax smiled but it was unlike any smile, Xinni had ever seen before. She had never seen this look up his face, the man that she adored and thought she had known inside and out. This look was a look of greed – maniacal greed! He snatched the orb out of Xinni’s hands and pushed her out the way.

“You stupid girl. Did you really think I would return the orb to its rightful owner? I had heard tales of its existence. Everyone else thought it was just rumors, mere folk lore, but not I. knew all along that it was real and now I finally have it in my possession! It’s mine!” Jax whispered peering at his new treasure, his face now lit up by the red glow from the orb.

Cowering beneath Jax, Xinni was holding her arm close as she hurt it when Jax had threw her out of the way.  “What have I done?” she whimpered. Gathering all her strength, she picked herself up off the ground to try to do something. Anything!

Jax started walking circles around Xinni. “Remember that clone you were talking about? Turns out, the one you thought was Boone, was actually a clone of Boone. Hah! Yes, a clone. There are clones everywhere! Now that I have the orb in my grasp, I am going to kill off all the originals, one by one,  and there will only be clones left. A clone army who will serve me, be at my beck and call and do my bidding. First, it will be Dunan, then the rest of the universe!” shrieks Jax, frantically pressing buttons now on the orb in his excitement.

Out of nowhere, people start appearing. Xinni recognized some, but knew these couldn’t be her friends but were the clones Jax spoke of. She remained quiet and pushed her way back out of the crowd. Hundreds of clones had appeared now, they were everywhere and started forming a circle around a shrilly laughing Jax.

But wait – something was wrong. They weren’t the obedient clones Jax has hoped for, they were grabbing at him now, swinging furiously with a look of death in their eyes. Jax must have pressed the wrong key in his excitement because they clones were now turning on him! He screamed and threw the orb up in the air and it bounced back ignored by the clones who only had their murderous eyes on Jax. Xinni ran to the orb while Jax pleaded and begged for help but his cry went unanswered. Soon the screams subsided and the clones had come to a halt, their mission complete.

Jax had been defeated.

Xinni felt a pang of guilt and sadness but knew Jax had betrayed her trust. She knew she had to make things right again. She fiddled with the orb and suddenly the clones vanished. Xinni had gotten rid of them for good this time.

Now to deal with the orb.

It had to be destroyed. Knowing if this power ever got into the wrong hands again, so much destruction would come with it. Xinni pressed more buttons on the orb and it rose up in the air. There was a deafening sound that came from the orb as it exploded into millions of tiny pieces.

And it was gone.

Ben has been dropping hints of a super secret project he has been working on and today I can final reveal that I will be taking part of this no longer secret project too!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday will be spent sweating it out with the 75,000+ people expected to show up at Grant Park for Lollapalooza. There will be some really great bands and I’m really looking forward to it. Just to make you a little jealous, here is a taste of who I will see: Duffy, Radiohead, Mates of States, Explosions in the Sky, Spankrock, DJ AM, Brand New, The Weakerthans, Chromeo and my lovah, Mark Ronson.

Jess is prepared to bail me out of jail in case I get in trouble with the law for trying to sneak attack Mark Ronson’s face. In case I die of heatstroke, you all have to battle it out on who gets to keep my pretty blog.

Are you going to Lolla or just wanna keep up with me because you know I will be twittering my face off all weekend?

P.S. Want a cute and FREE header by the lovely lady who made my amazing design? Go here!