Evolved [Book 2 of the Life Hearts Trilogy]

Another Battle of the Shadow Tower - Blue

"What are you doing up here?" Scott asked.

I fiddled with a piece of straw. In the couple days since I had built the tower, it had become my thinking spot. And I thought a lot.

My current reason was the dream. I didn't know what the Watcher - Watcher 1, by the sound of his voice - meant by the Shadow, but I didn't like it. I especially didn't like that the Castle Alliance had renamed their base to the Shadow Tower only a day before I had that dream. And Ren had already proved that he was very vulnerable to mind control, if the attacker promised him enough in return. I had also got a similar warning right before the tests of loyalty, when Ren officially became the Red King.

I didn't think it was a coincidence.

"Thinking," I finally answered Scott.

"I told you, the whole Shadow thing hasn't happened yet. We can't stop it any more than we could stop the Red King. We just have to wait for it to happen, whatever it is, and hope that it isn't another band of weirdos who call themselves soldiers and are way too possessive of banners and tables."

I laughed despite my worries. Scott had a way of simplifying things to the point that they were just ridiculous.

I followed him down the ladder to the main floor of the Scottage Tower. Pearl, Cleo, and Scott had all moved into the new tower. There was enough space for them there. There was enough space in my tower, too, but not for a long time. If we were attacked, we would demolish the bridge and all go into my tower until we were safe again. Foolproof.

We gathered in the Scottage Tower when thunder rang across the landscape, announcing another Boogeyman.

3...

2...

1...

Crossing my fingers had not worked last time. So I didn't.

You are...

Not the Boogeyman.

I sighed with relief.

Pearl, however, tensed. "It's me."

"Why is it always us?" Cleo raged. "Why can't they choose someone else for a change?"

Then she added, "Can you kill Bigb again?"

I shuddered as I remembered the fight. I was still guilty, even if the Castle Alliance had forgiven me. "Isn't he fine as he is?"

Cleo's expression darkened even more. "I want him out."

"Bigb betrayed you once, and now you want to kill him until he's out?" I asked. "What kind of revenge is that?"

"No, I'll do it," Pearl said. "I have to kill someone, right?"

"But that will put Bigb on red, and probably put the Castle Alliance against us," Scott reasoned. "Just because you're the Boogeyman doesn't mean that you do whatever you want, you still have to do what you can to help the Scottage Alliance."

Pearl bit her lip. The curse was telling her to go kill someone, even if that someone was one of us. But she wouldn't kill one of us. We were telling her not to kill Bigb, but Cleo was and it was a free opportunity.

"Tell you what," Pearl said. "I will set a trap, and tell you where it is so you don't fall into it, and whoever falls into it falls into it."

Cleo grumbled a little, but she agreed. So did Scott and me.

Pearl gathered some various redstone supplies and set out to make the trap. Scott, Cleo, and I went into the mines.

Since it was my first time in the secret catacombs under the Scottage, Scott and Cleo showed me around the upper level first. We had a sugarcane farm, where all the sugarcane had been stolen, so Scott went to get some more from a secret chest. We also had a Nether wart farm and about ten secret chests, hidden around the catacombs with secret stashes of extra sugarcane, Nether wart, and cactus. They also showed me their secret chest that had their real valuables, including their iron, redstone, lapis, and four of the shiny blue rocks that were so hard to find. Then we actually went down into the mines.