Chasing Butterflies (Anomaly Saga #3)

[5]

He led us to a room lined with hundreds of weapons, many of which I didn't recognize, and some I didn't realize counted as weapons.

I glanced around, looking at everything with sickly unease. I pondered if we would really need to use these.

As if reading my mind, Chaps frowned slightly. "Of course, you'll likely go face to face with lots of horrible things in this place, so make sure you pick something that suits you and is still formidable enough to scare your enemies."

Jenna set her gun down and immediately scanned the walls for something new.

I wasn't having very much luck finding what I wanted. I came back to Chaps with a butterfly net. I wouldn't say he raised his eyebrows, but he gave me a very quizzical look. "Are you sure that's the one you want?" he asked, and I nodded sheepishly.

"I don't want to resort to violence all the time . . . I think this may come in handy at some point," I said with a shrug.

And then Jenna came back with a blowtorch.

"A blowtorch for Jenna," pointed out Chaps. "And a . . . butterfly net for Danny . . . You know what? That's rubbish. Here." He led me back to the weapon room. "I know just what you need."

The skeleton pulled a long, shiny, sharp sword off of the wall. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen. How had I not noticed it before?

"Hold this," said Chaps, handing the blade to me. Then he went to a closet in the room and pulled out a dummy of a statue.

"Ah!" I squealed, even though I knew it was fake. The statues were still horrifying, even in memory.

Chaps laughed. "Cut off its head," he said. "Stand your ground!"

"Wait- what?" I said. Then I realized I would have to do what he said if I wanted to fight the statues and get out of here. How was fighting them linked to us getting out, again?

I cut off the dummy's head, revealing a bunch of foam inside.

"I needed you to get over your newfound anxiety," said Chaps.

"Newfound?" I said, looking at him.

"Yes. Newfound," he said. "We only pick top-grade fighters to take on things like this. You and Jenna are, well-were-trained in MMA, fencing, boxing, and wrestling, but it seems Copernicus erased a little too much from both of your memories," said Chaps. "We just need the both of you to get that drive to fight back."

"But I'm so weak still," I said. "Even if I was some awesome athlete. I don't know if I have the courage to face these statues," I said, feeling totally vulnerable. "I want to get home, but would I even stand a chance?"

"I can help with that," said Chaps. "Allow me to tell you exactly what the statues have done."

"Go ahead," said Jenna, testing out her blowtorch and accidentally setting fire to a nearby chair.

"Georgington!" shouted Chaps, and suddenly a butler strode into the room, put out the fire, and left.

"Wow," I said. "Does he live here?"

Chaps shook his head. "No. I've never seen that guy in my life. I've figured out that if something goes wrong in this tower, I only have to yell 'Georgington', and someone will come fix it."

"That's so weird."

"Life is so weird. Anyways, back to the topic at hand. The statues."

"You were going to tell us what they did," said Jenna, handling her blowtorch more carefully now.

"I was," Chaps agreed. He exhaled, or at least pretended to. "They killed my father."

There was a moment of silence before Jenna spoke up again. "Really?"

Chaps burst into a fit of laughter. "No, I'm messing with you! 'Killed my father' . . . that's so cliché!" He wiped nonexistent tears of laughter from his eyesockets. "What they actually did was steal my phonograph. They locked it in a special room enchanted to only open once every statue is dead. I need my phonograph."

I looked at him skeptically. "You're not still messing with us?"

"I am dead serious. I need my phonograph."

"Really?"

"Really."

Jenna took a step forward. "Um . . . why?"

Chaps tilted his head. "Because it contains only record of the First Song Ever Composed."

I discreetly edged back to the other weapons and picked out the bug net again, holding it behind my back. I still felt strangely drawn to it, like I was going to really need it in the future. "Why do we need the song?" I asked.

"Because," said Chaps, "it's the only song that can put the Destroyer of Worlds back to sleep-and the beast has been stirring for the past week."