Excalibur Rising

Back to reality

Chapter 14

Xandria’s living room lit up with several bright flashes before one by one the teens reappeared back in the living room, all of them intertwined with each other. Groaning Simon lifted his head up and chuckled when he saw Colton at the bottom of the pile groaning louder than everyone else as he tried to push us off of his body. Climbing from the Pile Simon watched as everyone quickly got to their feet and instead took time to survey the room. What he saw however he wasn’t prepared for.

Each of their parents that had been left behind when they went to Avalon were slumped on the floor and covered in cobwebs. It was as if they had been gone for hundreds of years and all of their families had been put into deep sleep, only to wake when they returned from their mission. Simon knew he was right about the sleep part but when he glanced at glanced at the phone lying on the table he was glad that only a few hours had passed since their departure and not a hundred years like in Sleeping Beauty.

He watched as they slowly started to stir, quite a few of them blinking in confusion at the cobwebs, some giving shrieks expecting a big spider to be lurking about but within a moment, they were all tentatively reaching out and swiped away the cobwebs.

Colton was relieved when he finally stood up but after checking that his parents were okay his main concern was finding Xandria but she was nowhere to be seen. He could see that her mum had noticed too but she set her shoulders back and continued to clean up the cobwebs as if nothing was wrong at all.

Turning back to his friends he looked them all over to check that they were all okay, the need to reassure himself the biggest concern he had beside Xandria. He frowned and gazed over them again and then caught Simon’s eye. He got a nod in return meaning that he had noticed too.

“Guys, where’s Jazz?” Colton asked and he knew that something bad had happened the moment that Zach, Daisy and James bristled and looked away from me, their eyes looked anywhere but at us.

“What happened?” Simon cut in, grasping Zach around the arm and swinging him around to face him when he realised that they were all going to ignore them and leave the question unanswered.

With a sigh, Zach reluctantly met his eyes. “Jazzy made a mistake on the little test. She got greedy and got turned into gold, the last we saw her statue fell into a hole and a money wearing leprechaun ran after her with a smile that was a little too big.”

Colton and Simon gaped at this information whilst a woman behind them started getting hysterical. “Where’s Jazzy? I want my daughter back. I knew I shouldn’t have let her be friends with these hooligans, she was much safer when she had no friends.” The woman choked off with sobs as she buried her head into her husband’s jacket as he tried to console her but way his mouth puckered showed that he was just as concerned as his wife.

“A leprechaun?” Colton questioned incredulously as he ran a hand through his hair. “And I thought my little trip was strange.” 

Dropping heavily onto the sofa he closed his eyes trying to decide what to do. Simon slumped next to him and Lila on his other side. She patted him on the shoulder in consolation.

“So we have two missing, Xandria and Jasmine?” He questioned, his voice cracking slightly at the implications. He felt Lila’s hand rubbing soothingly on his arm and he gave her a shaky smile.

“If Xandria’s not here, who is the chosen one?” James asked as he took a seat on the floor and looked up at his friends, genuinely curious. “I know for a fact that it isn’t me because even with the talisman I don’t feel any different and I’m not the leading type.”