The New Chapter 3
"READ OR DIE.... COMMENT OR DIE"- Puff Dad... P Diddy
This Chapter is completly new, it wasnt even on my old site. It has nothing really to do with the story, but its a really fun chapter. Read it, it goes by much faster than it looks.
Walking in silence had been their main activity as they followed the compass north. Van seldom thought about getting to know Fiona. All he could keep his focus on was the happiness he would gain from collecting all of the stones of Odin. Uma had said that it opened the door to the dead and the past. He could destroy his memories and maybe even find Emma, maybe even his father. Uma’s comment on how the sword was a gift from his father struck him as extremely absurd; he had no father.
After accepting the fact that he had no reason to believe that Uma was telling the truth about the sword, he focused on the times he had spent with Emma. These thoughts clouded his mind giving him an unexplainable smile to someone looking at him.
Fiona was constantly staring at his strange grin. She wondered what he was thinking about. Probably that she was stuck up. She had come on as such a brat towards him, and now that they were working together, she felt awkward.
They still had not escaped the forest they were in. The only difference was the temperature becoming slightly colder. Neither of them were dressed for the kind of weather they were enduring. Fiona’s vest was sleeveless, and Van had a black tang top on with a pair of jeans.
The five days of relative silence was driving Fiona crazy. She wanted to tell Van that she was just used to being superior. She wanted to change knowing that partners meant an equal playing field. If they were partners, she should not look down on him, but act as she really was. Her first impression was absolutely awful, and the scene kept on playing in her mind.
She wanted to scream out her sorrow, but in the distance, another was doing the screaming, “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllpppppppppppppppp meeeeeeeee!”
With that, Fiona felt a small child run straight into her leg, “Help!”
Fiona was struck with a sudden urge to show Van how kind she really was, “What’s wrong little girl?”
“My… my… brother… was…”
Neither of them could quite understand what she was saying through her sobbing, but continued to listen, “kidnapped… by… by…”
“By what, kiddo?”
“Ghosts!”
Fiona, who was bent over to speak to the little girl on an equal plane shot straight up in terror, “Ghosts?!”
“Ghosts!”
She turned to Van, “Ghosts, Van! Ghosts! We should get far away from here!”
Van took a deep breath and thought back to a time where him and Emma explored a ‘haunted house.’ He had lured her in there with a bunch of his friends waiting inside. When they were in the depths of the house, they jumped out and sent Emma crying all the way home. They were just kids, about the little girls age. He quickly chuckled and closed his eyes, kiss. They shot right back open.
“What is your name little girl?”
“Julia.”
“Well, Julia. We are going to help you find your brother, ok?”
Her tears dried up, “His name is Max! This ghost suit of armor grabbed him and his friends and then I ran away. The house is this way.”
She ran up ahead, giving Van and Fiona time to discuss the situation.
Van started following the girl, but Fiona was still struck by the thought of ghost. She grabbed his sleeve, “Van, ghosts! We are not going in a haunted house!”
He became cold with the remembrance of his own past, “Suck it up. There is always an explanation.”
He continued forward, out of her grasp. She took a deep breath and figured that he was right. She dusted herself off and forgave him in her mind for how rude he just was.
She quickly caught up to the two of them who were staring at a broken down wooden house. Every single one of the windows were completely cleared out of glass. It was two stories with the wind blowing through the poorly insulated mansion. The second story had only two windows and from each of them blew pages and pages of books. Fiona recognized one of the pages to be that of an old legend she had heard of two heroic brothers who defeated a legion of a corrupt god trying to attack the city of Caesar.
“Do you know where your brother and his friends could be?”
“Well,” she was having a hard time remembering where, “Oh yeah! There was a big room with a lot of books on the top floor… and… there was a big hallway with cages and chains in the basement! That’s where we went!”
Fiona wiped the sweat off her forehead and took a deep breath, “Don’t worry, we will find them.”
Through the corner of her eye, she saw a small smile on Van’s face. It was different kind of smile that he usually wore. It was as though the smile was directed at her.
“Let’s go in.”
She smiled back, “Sure.”
They stepped through the door less frame of the house into the main foyer. There was a dusty fireplace with a gigantic portrait above it. All that was clear were two swords being crossed together by what seemed to be to knights. They had their arms around one another, so it was clear they were not dueling.
To the left of the fireplace was a set of stair leading into a single doorway. On the right were another set of poorly carpeted steps into the basement. It seemed as though there was a direct path to both the places Julia had spoken of.
Fiona was at a breaking point, “Van! We need to get out of….”
He turned to her, “Sorry I was so rude before. I just have a lot on my mind, and sometimes I just get a little edgy.”
Fiona stopped her rant to hear him out, “I know this is hard for you, being in here, but you are stronger than any ghost,” her reddening face was hidden by the relative darkness of the house, “Besides. These are kids. The boys are playing a trick on Julia. Just remember that.”
She shook her head, “Ok.”
“Good. You take the library, and I’ll go into the dungeon.”
He ran down into the stairs on the right side of the fireplace, leaving Fiona alone in the eerie room, “Jerk!”
Van had not been able to take the time to see what he ran down into. He continued at full speed down a hall he discovered at the end of the stairs, laughing to himself. When his senses finally returned, he discovered that he had chosen the dungeon to look for Max and his friends.
He continued deeper on the path, looking into the former cages, seeing only rusted chains, which seemed to have been ripped through.
There were not as many spider webs or bones that he figured there would be. The prison cells seemed to actually be relatively clean, as though taken care of.
In spite of the advanced darkness he was walking through, Van had a feeling that he was getting closer to the end of the hall. Two things bothered him about this fact. One was that he had yet to find any of Julia’s friends, and two, there seemed to be a strange sweeping noise coming from one of the cells farther down.
The closer he got, the more clearly he heard humming. It was an eerie noise unlike anything he had ever heard before. He felt a mix of fear and intrigue on how little boys could make such an other world sound. When he looked into the cell where the sweeping and humming was coming from, all he could feel were the hairs on his body standing on end.
Fiona had found herself in the library. There seemed to be an endless amount of shelves, and on those shelves were millions of dusty old books.
She took a deep breath and started to search through the aisles between the shelves while stroking the dusty book spines and telling herself that there were no such things as ghosts.
After a few moments of walking around in the mountains of literature, she started to relax and read some of the titles of the books. She saw every type of book imaginable from a history textbook to a dirty magazine hidden in-between “Foundations of Drawing,” and “Ponies, Ponies, and more Ponies.”
One that she found most intriguing was that called “The God Wars.” As she began to open the book, she heard a loud voice from behind her, “I see you are interested in the great battle between Piran and Dato.”
Her eyes shot wide open. She quickly turned around and shot her projectiles directly at the voice. Her disks tore straight through the shelf and many others behind it, quickly returning to her gloves. She sighed, “I must be hearing things.”
“No dear you are not.”
This time, the voice was coming from her side. She slowly turned her head to discover a plump, somewhat transparent man staring at her intriguingly.
“Wha… wha…”
“Madam, I am the librarian of this mansion. If you need any help finding a book, I would be honored to assist you.”
Van was confused, “So you were the butler of this house?”
“No, sir. I continue to be the butler of this house.”
“Yeah, sorry. So why are you cleaning these cells?”
“They are very dirty! After my lords Percival and Thomas captured many of the solders in Dato’s army, we put them in these cells to await execution. We soon found out they could not die, for they were demons. They easily escaped while lord Percival was out and ran a muck throughout the house. As my job entails, I must clean the entire house.”
“Lord Percival and Lord Thomas were the knights who stopped a legion of Hades, correct?”
“You are correct Madam.”
Fiona took a moment to understand the situation. This was the house of two ancient heroes who captured the demons of the god of the underworld. The demons could not be killed, escaped, and then killed everyone in the house. Even though she felt bad for the librarian, who was, unbeknownst to himself, dead, they had nothing to do with the missing kids.
“Did you see any kids around here?”
“Why, actually I did, sir. They were running around here, making a mess of all of my cleaning progress. I think they ran into the master bedroom.”
“Where can I find the master bedroom?”
“Go down the stairs, and in the foyer there are two very large double doors. Sir Thomas is in there. He might know where to find those kids.”
“Thanks a lot. Maybe I’ll come back to read some of these books.”
“That would be greatly appreciated.”
Fiona’s opinion on the dead was changing. Not all of them were like the ones people told stories about. As she walked down the stairs, she realized how comfortable she was talking to the librarian. She loved hearing stories about the past, and his experience was unmatched. Even after a brief period of time, she knew that her love for history would bring her back to this old manor.
Van noticed Fiona holding onto the railing as she calmly made her way down the stairs, “I’m guessing you didn’t see a ghost?” He figured that if she had not, that he would not tell her there was on in the cellar, no matter how courteous he was.
“Actually, I did. He was a librarian. He didn’t know where the kids were, but told me to look for Sir Thomas in the master bedroom.”
“That’s weird. I met a butler in the cellar who told me the same thing. Did he tell you about how the brothers captured those demons.”
“Yeah. It’s sad, that they don’t know they are dead.”
“You figured that too?”
“Yeah.”
Without noticing it, they had made their way to the enormous double doors both the librarian and the butler had spoken of. Van stepped forward and began to slowly open the door. The creaking of the old hinge was not only loud, but continuous as the door opened.
Fiona, tired of listening to the irritating noise, stepped forward and slammed the door open completely. She looked over at Van, “It’s called a ladies touch.”
He stared at her as she shook her hips into the unkempt master bedroom, “Must be.”
Even though the whole room was basically in ruins, they could both see that it had once been magnificent. The room was filled with gold so dusty, it appeared to be tin. There were torn apart clothes all over the room and the bed seemed to have been impaled by demonic swords long ago.
Van, confused on how to go about calling on Sir Thomas, simply shouted his name. He looked around for the spirit but saw nothing until Fiona tapped him on the shoulder, “The bed…”
From the destroyed mattress rose a seemingly well-built specter. He sat at the edge of the bed and yawned. He took note of his two spectators but paid them no mind. He walked over to an abandoned coat rack and simulated putting on a jacket, “What do you want?”
“We are looking for some children. Have you seen the Sir Thomas?”
“I am surprised you know who I am.”
“Why wouldn’t we? You are the lord of this estate.”
“Alas, I was the lord of this estate, but I am dead.”
Van turned to Fiona, “I thought they all were stuck in the past.”
“On the contrary. The Dato demons escaped from our dungeons while my brother was out. They killed all of my staff and me as well. I was the only one completely aware of what is going on and how we all died. Most of the servants were put to rest and are now in the world of the dead. The librarian and the butler were such devout servants, they stayed even in the afterlife to serve their master in denial.”
“Why can’t Lord Percival be put to rest?”
“He still believes himself to be alive. When he came back to see his family and friends slaughtered, he was in denial of the whole event. He died fighting the demons, and to this day wishes to vanquish them. That is why he has the children. He wishes to sacrifice them to Hades, the chief god of Dato, so that the demons he has captured will vanish.”
“He is going to kill the kids! We have to stop him!”
“Hmm… maybe people of this time will be able to convince Percival that he is dead. Come, I will show you to his quarters.”
Van and Fiona started out the door when they noticed that he was not following them. He looked back to see that Sir Thomas was searching for something in a large pile of clothes, “What are you looking for?”
He pulled out a long blade, “My sword.”
“How can you hold it? You’re a ghost.”
He stared at them arrogantly, “A true knight can wield his like a master in life and death,” He walked past them, “Shall we?”
Across the foyer was an identical set of double doors. Thomas walked straight through them. Amazed and a little startled by his actions, Van and Fiona hesitated before entering Percival’s chamber.
They simultaneously placed their hands on the corresponding doors and pushed through them. They found that Thomas had already raised his sword to Percival, who was wearing his armor. Behind him were three little boys huddled in a corner.
“Brother, what do you think you are doing?”
“I am avenging you! By sacrificing these virgins, Hades will destroy the demons that have killed you!”
“Do you not understand? You are dead as well. When you realize that, we will both be put to rest! I cannot die knowing that my brother is stuck in the past!”
“Lies!”
Percival drew his sword and began sprinting at his brother. Thomas did not bother moving. Percival slashed straight through Thomas’ chest, “See, you have no effect on me! We are dead!”
“Deceptions!”
He let go of his sword with one hand and smacked Thomas onto the ground.
Van turned to Fiona, “How can he hit him?”
Thomas lifted himself off the ground, “His armor, like my sword, were blessed by the high priest of Piran, the great Stefenos. That is why we are able to use them in death.”
“But you said a true swordsma…”
“I know what I said! If I can cut his body with my blade, then he will realize that he is dead.”
“But his armor.”
He pointed at Percival, “You see the straps? If you can cut through those, the armor will fall right off.”
Fiona nodded and turned to Van, “Go protect the kids. My aim is better so I’ll be able to hit the straps easier.”
Though secretly angered by what she had said, he knew she was right. He ran over to the kids and tried to comfort them while Fiona aimed her disks.
Thomas had resumed his fight with Percival. They were evenly matched, or so it seemed. Thomas was using both of his hands to maneuver the sword, whereas Percival was using only one hand, and matching all of his brother’s blows with relative ease.
Once again, Percival found an opening in Thomas’s attacks to hit him with his gauntlet. Luckily, Fiona found that as an opening as well. She shot her left blade at his breastplate. He dodged then turned towards her direction to discover that she wan not there. He looked around to see where she was, but could not find her. He turned around to see that she was sprinting at him with her right arm ready to strike. Percival attempted to block, but due to Fiona’s exceptional perception skills, she slowed down for a second and then accelerated past the swing. She quickly broke the strap on his left shoulder and jumped back to safety.
They all watched as Percival’s left arm protector fell to the ground, as well as his left breastplate.
“You wench! How dare you defile my sacred armor!”
“A ghost has no use for armor.”
Even through his helmet, it was obvious he was attempting to grind his teeth, “Die, hag!”
She raised her left hand to catch her other blade. Now fully equipped, she bobbed her fists out in front of her, “Bring it on.”
Before she could finish the sentence, Percival was already steps away from her, with his sword above his head, ready to swing. Fiona placed her foot farther to the side and followed through with the rest of her body as her enemy brought his sword down unto where she was standing.
She quickly brought back her arm to try and punch, but Percival had anticipated the attack, and with his free hand grabbed her neck, and slammed her up against the wall.
Van turned to Max and his friends, “You kids get out of this house. Your sister is waiting for you.”
They stared at him blankly, “Go!”
They ran past the injured Thomas, through the large double doors, and out to their awaiting sister.
Van unsheathed his glowing blade. He was temporarily hypnotized by its resonating aura, but managed to escape its spell and focus on his goal.
He ran at Percival with heavy steps. The ghost took noticed and looked over at Van, “Fool! You cannot touch me with that sword!”
“We’ll see!”
He pulled the weapon back and thrusted it straight through Percival’s heart and into the wall, just missing Fiona’s arm.
His grip loosened on Fiona’s neck so much so that she could escape. Van had removed his sword and watched as the former man staggered towards his brother. Thomas had relatively recovered and held out his arms; Percival gladly accepted the embrace.
“He killed me, brother.”
“You were already dead, brother.”
“I see,” he turned towards Van, “You have quite a sword on you. It cut through my heart and showed me the way. It is a gift from Odin, cherish it.”
Van was intrigued, “Odin?” he stepped forward, “Tell me more about Odin!”
The brothers just smiled and disappeared into the other world along with the mansion. The children had left leaving a few cookies and flowers as thanks. All that was left of the mansion were the holy armor and the holy sword. Van stuck the sword in the ground and placed they armor next to it. Fiona walked over and placed the flowers and cookies over the two graves. They spent a moment of silence over the site and continued north.
This Chapter is completly new, it wasnt even on my old site. It has nothing really to do with the story, but its a really fun chapter. Read it, it goes by much faster than it looks.
Walking in silence had been their main activity as they followed the compass north. Van seldom thought about getting to know Fiona. All he could keep his focus on was the happiness he would gain from collecting all of the stones of Odin. Uma had said that it opened the door to the dead and the past. He could destroy his memories and maybe even find Emma, maybe even his father. Uma’s comment on how the sword was a gift from his father struck him as extremely absurd; he had no father.
After accepting the fact that he had no reason to believe that Uma was telling the truth about the sword, he focused on the times he had spent with Emma. These thoughts clouded his mind giving him an unexplainable smile to someone looking at him.
Fiona was constantly staring at his strange grin. She wondered what he was thinking about. Probably that she was stuck up. She had come on as such a brat towards him, and now that they were working together, she felt awkward.
They still had not escaped the forest they were in. The only difference was the temperature becoming slightly colder. Neither of them were dressed for the kind of weather they were enduring. Fiona’s vest was sleeveless, and Van had a black tang top on with a pair of jeans.
The five days of relative silence was driving Fiona crazy. She wanted to tell Van that she was just used to being superior. She wanted to change knowing that partners meant an equal playing field. If they were partners, she should not look down on him, but act as she really was. Her first impression was absolutely awful, and the scene kept on playing in her mind.
She wanted to scream out her sorrow, but in the distance, another was doing the screaming, “Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllllllpppppppppppppppp meeeeeeeee!”
With that, Fiona felt a small child run straight into her leg, “Help!”
Fiona was struck with a sudden urge to show Van how kind she really was, “What’s wrong little girl?”
“My… my… brother… was…”
Neither of them could quite understand what she was saying through her sobbing, but continued to listen, “kidnapped… by… by…”
“By what, kiddo?”
“Ghosts!”
Fiona, who was bent over to speak to the little girl on an equal plane shot straight up in terror, “Ghosts?!”
“Ghosts!”
She turned to Van, “Ghosts, Van! Ghosts! We should get far away from here!”
Van took a deep breath and thought back to a time where him and Emma explored a ‘haunted house.’ He had lured her in there with a bunch of his friends waiting inside. When they were in the depths of the house, they jumped out and sent Emma crying all the way home. They were just kids, about the little girls age. He quickly chuckled and closed his eyes, kiss. They shot right back open.
“What is your name little girl?”
“Julia.”
“Well, Julia. We are going to help you find your brother, ok?”
Her tears dried up, “His name is Max! This ghost suit of armor grabbed him and his friends and then I ran away. The house is this way.”
She ran up ahead, giving Van and Fiona time to discuss the situation.
Van started following the girl, but Fiona was still struck by the thought of ghost. She grabbed his sleeve, “Van, ghosts! We are not going in a haunted house!”
He became cold with the remembrance of his own past, “Suck it up. There is always an explanation.”
He continued forward, out of her grasp. She took a deep breath and figured that he was right. She dusted herself off and forgave him in her mind for how rude he just was.
She quickly caught up to the two of them who were staring at a broken down wooden house. Every single one of the windows were completely cleared out of glass. It was two stories with the wind blowing through the poorly insulated mansion. The second story had only two windows and from each of them blew pages and pages of books. Fiona recognized one of the pages to be that of an old legend she had heard of two heroic brothers who defeated a legion of a corrupt god trying to attack the city of Caesar.
“Do you know where your brother and his friends could be?”
“Well,” she was having a hard time remembering where, “Oh yeah! There was a big room with a lot of books on the top floor… and… there was a big hallway with cages and chains in the basement! That’s where we went!”
Fiona wiped the sweat off her forehead and took a deep breath, “Don’t worry, we will find them.”
Through the corner of her eye, she saw a small smile on Van’s face. It was different kind of smile that he usually wore. It was as though the smile was directed at her.
“Let’s go in.”
She smiled back, “Sure.”
They stepped through the door less frame of the house into the main foyer. There was a dusty fireplace with a gigantic portrait above it. All that was clear were two swords being crossed together by what seemed to be to knights. They had their arms around one another, so it was clear they were not dueling.
To the left of the fireplace was a set of stair leading into a single doorway. On the right were another set of poorly carpeted steps into the basement. It seemed as though there was a direct path to both the places Julia had spoken of.
Fiona was at a breaking point, “Van! We need to get out of….”
He turned to her, “Sorry I was so rude before. I just have a lot on my mind, and sometimes I just get a little edgy.”
Fiona stopped her rant to hear him out, “I know this is hard for you, being in here, but you are stronger than any ghost,” her reddening face was hidden by the relative darkness of the house, “Besides. These are kids. The boys are playing a trick on Julia. Just remember that.”
She shook her head, “Ok.”
“Good. You take the library, and I’ll go into the dungeon.”
He ran down into the stairs on the right side of the fireplace, leaving Fiona alone in the eerie room, “Jerk!”
Van had not been able to take the time to see what he ran down into. He continued at full speed down a hall he discovered at the end of the stairs, laughing to himself. When his senses finally returned, he discovered that he had chosen the dungeon to look for Max and his friends.
He continued deeper on the path, looking into the former cages, seeing only rusted chains, which seemed to have been ripped through.
There were not as many spider webs or bones that he figured there would be. The prison cells seemed to actually be relatively clean, as though taken care of.
In spite of the advanced darkness he was walking through, Van had a feeling that he was getting closer to the end of the hall. Two things bothered him about this fact. One was that he had yet to find any of Julia’s friends, and two, there seemed to be a strange sweeping noise coming from one of the cells farther down.
The closer he got, the more clearly he heard humming. It was an eerie noise unlike anything he had ever heard before. He felt a mix of fear and intrigue on how little boys could make such an other world sound. When he looked into the cell where the sweeping and humming was coming from, all he could feel were the hairs on his body standing on end.
Fiona had found herself in the library. There seemed to be an endless amount of shelves, and on those shelves were millions of dusty old books.
She took a deep breath and started to search through the aisles between the shelves while stroking the dusty book spines and telling herself that there were no such things as ghosts.
After a few moments of walking around in the mountains of literature, she started to relax and read some of the titles of the books. She saw every type of book imaginable from a history textbook to a dirty magazine hidden in-between “Foundations of Drawing,” and “Ponies, Ponies, and more Ponies.”
One that she found most intriguing was that called “The God Wars.” As she began to open the book, she heard a loud voice from behind her, “I see you are interested in the great battle between Piran and Dato.”
Her eyes shot wide open. She quickly turned around and shot her projectiles directly at the voice. Her disks tore straight through the shelf and many others behind it, quickly returning to her gloves. She sighed, “I must be hearing things.”
“No dear you are not.”
This time, the voice was coming from her side. She slowly turned her head to discover a plump, somewhat transparent man staring at her intriguingly.
“Wha… wha…”
“Madam, I am the librarian of this mansion. If you need any help finding a book, I would be honored to assist you.”
Van was confused, “So you were the butler of this house?”
“No, sir. I continue to be the butler of this house.”
“Yeah, sorry. So why are you cleaning these cells?”
“They are very dirty! After my lords Percival and Thomas captured many of the solders in Dato’s army, we put them in these cells to await execution. We soon found out they could not die, for they were demons. They easily escaped while lord Percival was out and ran a muck throughout the house. As my job entails, I must clean the entire house.”
“Lord Percival and Lord Thomas were the knights who stopped a legion of Hades, correct?”
“You are correct Madam.”
Fiona took a moment to understand the situation. This was the house of two ancient heroes who captured the demons of the god of the underworld. The demons could not be killed, escaped, and then killed everyone in the house. Even though she felt bad for the librarian, who was, unbeknownst to himself, dead, they had nothing to do with the missing kids.
“Did you see any kids around here?”
“Why, actually I did, sir. They were running around here, making a mess of all of my cleaning progress. I think they ran into the master bedroom.”
“Where can I find the master bedroom?”
“Go down the stairs, and in the foyer there are two very large double doors. Sir Thomas is in there. He might know where to find those kids.”
“Thanks a lot. Maybe I’ll come back to read some of these books.”
“That would be greatly appreciated.”
Fiona’s opinion on the dead was changing. Not all of them were like the ones people told stories about. As she walked down the stairs, she realized how comfortable she was talking to the librarian. She loved hearing stories about the past, and his experience was unmatched. Even after a brief period of time, she knew that her love for history would bring her back to this old manor.
Van noticed Fiona holding onto the railing as she calmly made her way down the stairs, “I’m guessing you didn’t see a ghost?” He figured that if she had not, that he would not tell her there was on in the cellar, no matter how courteous he was.
“Actually, I did. He was a librarian. He didn’t know where the kids were, but told me to look for Sir Thomas in the master bedroom.”
“That’s weird. I met a butler in the cellar who told me the same thing. Did he tell you about how the brothers captured those demons.”
“Yeah. It’s sad, that they don’t know they are dead.”
“You figured that too?”
“Yeah.”
Without noticing it, they had made their way to the enormous double doors both the librarian and the butler had spoken of. Van stepped forward and began to slowly open the door. The creaking of the old hinge was not only loud, but continuous as the door opened.
Fiona, tired of listening to the irritating noise, stepped forward and slammed the door open completely. She looked over at Van, “It’s called a ladies touch.”
He stared at her as she shook her hips into the unkempt master bedroom, “Must be.”
Even though the whole room was basically in ruins, they could both see that it had once been magnificent. The room was filled with gold so dusty, it appeared to be tin. There were torn apart clothes all over the room and the bed seemed to have been impaled by demonic swords long ago.
Van, confused on how to go about calling on Sir Thomas, simply shouted his name. He looked around for the spirit but saw nothing until Fiona tapped him on the shoulder, “The bed…”
From the destroyed mattress rose a seemingly well-built specter. He sat at the edge of the bed and yawned. He took note of his two spectators but paid them no mind. He walked over to an abandoned coat rack and simulated putting on a jacket, “What do you want?”
“We are looking for some children. Have you seen the Sir Thomas?”
“I am surprised you know who I am.”
“Why wouldn’t we? You are the lord of this estate.”
“Alas, I was the lord of this estate, but I am dead.”
Van turned to Fiona, “I thought they all were stuck in the past.”
“On the contrary. The Dato demons escaped from our dungeons while my brother was out. They killed all of my staff and me as well. I was the only one completely aware of what is going on and how we all died. Most of the servants were put to rest and are now in the world of the dead. The librarian and the butler were such devout servants, they stayed even in the afterlife to serve their master in denial.”
“Why can’t Lord Percival be put to rest?”
“He still believes himself to be alive. When he came back to see his family and friends slaughtered, he was in denial of the whole event. He died fighting the demons, and to this day wishes to vanquish them. That is why he has the children. He wishes to sacrifice them to Hades, the chief god of Dato, so that the demons he has captured will vanish.”
“He is going to kill the kids! We have to stop him!”
“Hmm… maybe people of this time will be able to convince Percival that he is dead. Come, I will show you to his quarters.”
Van and Fiona started out the door when they noticed that he was not following them. He looked back to see that Sir Thomas was searching for something in a large pile of clothes, “What are you looking for?”
He pulled out a long blade, “My sword.”
“How can you hold it? You’re a ghost.”
He stared at them arrogantly, “A true knight can wield his like a master in life and death,” He walked past them, “Shall we?”
Across the foyer was an identical set of double doors. Thomas walked straight through them. Amazed and a little startled by his actions, Van and Fiona hesitated before entering Percival’s chamber.
They simultaneously placed their hands on the corresponding doors and pushed through them. They found that Thomas had already raised his sword to Percival, who was wearing his armor. Behind him were three little boys huddled in a corner.
“Brother, what do you think you are doing?”
“I am avenging you! By sacrificing these virgins, Hades will destroy the demons that have killed you!”
“Do you not understand? You are dead as well. When you realize that, we will both be put to rest! I cannot die knowing that my brother is stuck in the past!”
“Lies!”
Percival drew his sword and began sprinting at his brother. Thomas did not bother moving. Percival slashed straight through Thomas’ chest, “See, you have no effect on me! We are dead!”
“Deceptions!”
He let go of his sword with one hand and smacked Thomas onto the ground.
Van turned to Fiona, “How can he hit him?”
Thomas lifted himself off the ground, “His armor, like my sword, were blessed by the high priest of Piran, the great Stefenos. That is why we are able to use them in death.”
“But you said a true swordsma…”
“I know what I said! If I can cut his body with my blade, then he will realize that he is dead.”
“But his armor.”
He pointed at Percival, “You see the straps? If you can cut through those, the armor will fall right off.”
Fiona nodded and turned to Van, “Go protect the kids. My aim is better so I’ll be able to hit the straps easier.”
Though secretly angered by what she had said, he knew she was right. He ran over to the kids and tried to comfort them while Fiona aimed her disks.
Thomas had resumed his fight with Percival. They were evenly matched, or so it seemed. Thomas was using both of his hands to maneuver the sword, whereas Percival was using only one hand, and matching all of his brother’s blows with relative ease.
Once again, Percival found an opening in Thomas’s attacks to hit him with his gauntlet. Luckily, Fiona found that as an opening as well. She shot her left blade at his breastplate. He dodged then turned towards her direction to discover that she wan not there. He looked around to see where she was, but could not find her. He turned around to see that she was sprinting at him with her right arm ready to strike. Percival attempted to block, but due to Fiona’s exceptional perception skills, she slowed down for a second and then accelerated past the swing. She quickly broke the strap on his left shoulder and jumped back to safety.
They all watched as Percival’s left arm protector fell to the ground, as well as his left breastplate.
“You wench! How dare you defile my sacred armor!”
“A ghost has no use for armor.”
Even through his helmet, it was obvious he was attempting to grind his teeth, “Die, hag!”
She raised her left hand to catch her other blade. Now fully equipped, she bobbed her fists out in front of her, “Bring it on.”
Before she could finish the sentence, Percival was already steps away from her, with his sword above his head, ready to swing. Fiona placed her foot farther to the side and followed through with the rest of her body as her enemy brought his sword down unto where she was standing.
She quickly brought back her arm to try and punch, but Percival had anticipated the attack, and with his free hand grabbed her neck, and slammed her up against the wall.
Van turned to Max and his friends, “You kids get out of this house. Your sister is waiting for you.”
They stared at him blankly, “Go!”
They ran past the injured Thomas, through the large double doors, and out to their awaiting sister.
Van unsheathed his glowing blade. He was temporarily hypnotized by its resonating aura, but managed to escape its spell and focus on his goal.
He ran at Percival with heavy steps. The ghost took noticed and looked over at Van, “Fool! You cannot touch me with that sword!”
“We’ll see!”
He pulled the weapon back and thrusted it straight through Percival’s heart and into the wall, just missing Fiona’s arm.
His grip loosened on Fiona’s neck so much so that she could escape. Van had removed his sword and watched as the former man staggered towards his brother. Thomas had relatively recovered and held out his arms; Percival gladly accepted the embrace.
“He killed me, brother.”
“You were already dead, brother.”
“I see,” he turned towards Van, “You have quite a sword on you. It cut through my heart and showed me the way. It is a gift from Odin, cherish it.”
Van was intrigued, “Odin?” he stepped forward, “Tell me more about Odin!”
The brothers just smiled and disappeared into the other world along with the mansion. The children had left leaving a few cookies and flowers as thanks. All that was left of the mansion were the holy armor and the holy sword. Van stuck the sword in the ground and placed they armor next to it. Fiona walked over and placed the flowers and cookies over the two graves. They spent a moment of silence over the site and continued north.