The Boy on Fire

Chapter 8

Julianna's POV
When I woke up, Leo was laying down right next to me. It was amazing how he could look so peaceful when he was sleeping. Normally when he was awake, he was very hyper, but he almost looked like a completely different person. I turned over in bed to see the single bed next to the one I was laying on. Connor lay fast asleep on top of it. I grinned to myself, knowing that I was the first one to be awake. The digital clock on the nightstand between the two beds read:
7:24
I quietly got out of bed, being careful not to wake up the boys. I tiptoed out of the room, heading for the lobby, remembering vaguely another sign that I had noticed the day before. I went down the stairs as fast as I could and followed the signs that read Music Studio. I pushed open the clear glass doors and found a bunch of musical instruments all over the room. When I found the instrument of my choice, I grabbed it and ran back up the stairs. As I hurried my way back up to the room, I went over the fingering in my head. I opened the door quietly, stood between both beds, put my lips to the cold brass horn, and blew into it. I started playing the First Call that they use in the military. The boys awoke with a start and a whole bunch of screaming. Leo jumped out of bed with his hands covering his ears while screaming at the top of his lungs. He walked over to me and pulled the bugle away from my mouth, cutting off the sudden noise. Connor was still cowering underneath his covers.
Leo threw the bugle on the bed and screamed, "What was that for?!"
"Rise and shine, ladies! Today is going to be a big day!" I announced. Connor had finally acquired the courage to remove his head from his cotton shelter and stared at me with huge eyes.
"Remind me to never let you near instruments again..." I couldn't help but smile.
"It's already 7:30! Come on! Shake a leg! Get a move on! Let's get this party started!" I yelled while running around the room. A good night's sleep definitely did me justice. I rushed over to the bed and yanked off Connor's former "bugle blocker" and held it to my shoulders, letting it trail behind me like a cape.
"The Terrific Three are ready for action!" And "Let's get ready to whoop some snow butt!" Were among many random phrases that kept spewing out of my mouth. I ran into Leo and tackled him onto the bed, laughing. I jumped up to stand on the bed and rested my foot gently on his stomach in triumph.
"You! Repair boy! Are you ready to prepare my steed for the journey?" I asked/yelled in a British accent at Leo.
"As you wish, my fair maiden," he replied in the same British voice. "I shall prepare the steed while you and the jester make amends for yesterday's fright." He suddenly rolled out from under my foot, ran through the open door across the room, and slammed it shut. I giggled as he did this and shook my head in disbelief.
"I'm hungry. You?" Connor asked from his single bed.
"Starving. Shall we 'make amends' over breakfast?"
"We shall," and we headed off towards the dining area for some toast and cereal.
We sat at a table set for 2, facing each other, as we talked and ate at the same time.
"Now, you must confess," Connor started in a serious tone. "Where you learned to conceive such a convincing British accent," he finished with a smile. I had to laugh at this comment, but not before almost choking on my only half-swallowed gulp of orange juice.
"Oh, you know, just the occasional Accent Conceiving Course held by the Secret National Society of Accents." Connor rose an eyebrow at this, so I continued. "Yeah, the SNSA is so secretive, all meetings are held underground. You get to pick which accent you want to learn to mimic and a professional that's part of the society comes in to teach the course." I finished, although barely able to contain my laughter.
"You never fail to impress me, Masters," is all he said sarcastically in response to my little tale.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," I began, starting to switch topics. "Leo...just gets a little...over protective, I guess?"
"Hmm...'a little' and 'I guess' are slight exaggerations, but it's totally fine. I know Leo just didn't want you getting hurt. It's all cool." Connor assured. I felt a little better after Connor said this. He was quite a convincing person. We were both done with breakfast at this time, so we decided to check on Leo. We fumbled through the forest in the back of the hotel until we found Leo's work space where he continued to reattach the severed section of Festus's wing.
"Hey, guys. I'm just having a little trouble with the reconnection of the wing's cords to Festus's control disk to make sure it functions properly, but in an hour or two, I should have it under control." I sighed a little. Leo was so ingenious. I smiled at Leo and walked over to him, throwing my arm around his shoulders, which was a little hard since he was slightly taller than me. I pulled my arm closer to me with his head still in it and gave him a noogie atop his head.
"My Repair Boy makes me so proud," I said while wiping a fake tear of joy from my eye. He gave a small laugh and ruffled my hair.
"Think you two could make yourselves useful and find me some celestial bronze from somewhere? Festus has a radar tracker for celestial bronze. If it's location isn't too far maybe you guys can catch a taxi or something."
"Sure thing, Leo," Connor replied. Festus then emitted a bunch of squeaks and creaks, which I guessed was communication. Leo nodded and thanked the dragon.
"Alright, troops! There's some celestial bronze just ten minutes from here by car, luckily. It's in a warehouse called Wings and Snakes. I'll give you a map that I found in the hotel lobby - maybe you can find the warehouse on it and ask the driver to take you there. There's supposed to be a storage room in the back with some celestial bronze about 3 feet by 4 feet, so it shouldn't be too hard to fit in a taxi without the mortals getting suspicious. Mist might make it look like wood or something, I don't know. Understood?" He announced in a tone that wasn't unlike a war general.
"Aye aye, Captain," I replied as I saluted him. Leo handed me the map and wished us good luck on our "mission".
It took us a little while to find and catch a taxi in little old Otterville, Illinois, but we eventually managed it. The driver took us to the address of the abandoned warehouse and dropped us off. I paid the cabbie with some of the money from my backpack and politely asked him to wait outside for us to take us home afterwards.
The old wooden door creaked when Connor opened it cautiously and crept inside. The place was definitely creepy-looking - like a haunted house that scares the living daylights out of little kids. Greeeeeeat. And the mysterious breeze that drifted the curtains aside to create a perfect view of the terrifying logo outside the window was a great reassurance. However, we progressed on to the back of the warehouse, determined to get our friend the celestial bronze he needed.
We walked into cobwebs and made the floorboards creak when we walked, but other that that nothing seemed that suspicious about the workshop. We passed workbenches with all different kinds of rusty tools that looked as if they hadn't been used in at least 20 years. When we reached the door at the back of the shop labeled: " tr ge Ro m" we took a wild guess that it used to say "Storage Room" and entered. Unlike the rest of the house, which was lit by candelabras on the walls, this room had absolutely no light source and was pitch black. Connor and I walked a couple steps into the darkness and the door behind us closed.
"Well, this is fantastic." I remarked sarcastically.
"Yep. It's like our own little private haunted house. " he responded. I then heard a weird sound, as if compressed air were leaking out of a pipe. We saw two orange colored balls of light near the ceiling that lit up the room and reflected slightly off the dusty sheet of celestial bronze that was then easily spotted in the corner of the small room. However, these balls of light looked unnervingly unnatural. I took the seemed forgotten sunglasses out of my inside jacket pocket for the first time, opening the hinge and keeping my finger on the button. The lights started to slowly progress closer towards Connor and I. Another set of lights near the door in which we had just entered had appeared also. Both of the pairs of lights came closer to us very slowly, until they both stopped suddenly 3 feet ahead of us. Something pulled on a cord hanging from the ceiling that turned on a light. After my eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of the room, I realized what the lights were. Not only that, but what the lights were attached to.

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Hi everybody! Once again, I have to type out is apology that you read multiple times over already. I am SOOOO sorry about the slow update. I was having a little bit of writer's block, which didn't help after the simultaneous state testing and final exams. But, don't fret, for tomorrow is my last day of school! And I will try my hardest to really commit to this book over the summer. So, I can safely say that summertime = more frequent updates!

And I just wanted to thank you all for getting me to 200+ reads! You are amazing guys, I really appreciate it. Keep it up!
Don't forget to comment, rate, and all that other stuff.
Until next time,
- Gussifer Lopez