- Natalie's POV-
Cara raced ahead, spotting something we didn't and dropping to her knees. We had been calling for Jed and Octavius for about five minutes, scouring the gleaming, spotless hallways for them. I didn't know they came along, but I didn't voice this. Dad followed her, and as he was sort of the leader, we followed him.
He nudged Cara out of the way, and she looked up at me with hopeless eyes. My hopeful heart sank. I had thought she had found them. I shoved my way between Dad and Teddy, and stared at the fluttering, eye-catching red cloth that was Octavius' cape.
It was caught in the vent.
Oh perfect.
Why did they have to fall in the heating vent, of all places? Teddy turned to Dad. "They won't last long in those heating vents, Lawrence."
Ahk spoke, revealing a pessimistic side I had seen a couple of times. "At their size, they'll bake like tiny little scarabs in the Sinai." I knew this was how everyone saw him, a boy lost in sadness and fear, and obsessed with darkness. And he was. Sometimes.
We all stared at him. He seemed to noticed the gruesome content of his statement. "Too dark," he said, as if asking a question. But I knew he wasn't. It was a silent message, one he gave to me with a look of the tablet, and a glance at the window. I gasped audibly.
The tablet is their sun. When their sun goes dark, then...but they aren't alive. That's not possible. Wax isn't affected by light. No. Not possible. They'll be ok, almost nothing can hurt them.
I mentally growled at myself. Except a dying tablet, my mind said. When I looked back on those moments, I wish I would have accepted it right then. It would have made everything so much easier.
"Nick, Natalie, help me with this grate." Dad said, struggling to pull it up. I bent down, and jerked it up, lifting my end into the air, sliding the grate to the side. Once it was out, Dad searched the blinding, inscrutable darkness. I looked also, but there was no query of them being gone.
A faint cry of "Laaaaaaarrrrrrrrrryyyyyy." Came shouting up to us. Octavius?
He and Jed must have held on as long as they possibly could. Maybe we were only a few seconds late. I wondered where they would end up.
"Nick, gimme your phone," Dad said. It was so out of the blue, but Nick hastened to comply.
"Why do you need my phone?"
Dad looked for a way to edge out of this. "I'm...sort of set up to track your phone," he muttered. He didn't look bothered by Nick's reaction.
"Sort of? How could that be sort of?" He shouted. Aengos winced. High time I got out of this conversation. I sidled over to Cara. "Natalie, is spying on the same thing as watching out for?"
"Oh, I don't know, Nick, do you have a brain? Are you capable, in some small way, to create a statement for yourself? Because I'm out of this conversation," I said. Ciara giggled.
I hadn't really spoken to Ciara since the night of the presentation. I walked up to her. "Hey...you doing all right?"
"Of course! Why?" She asked.
"Okay, let me ask this: What's your grudge against Ahk?"
"What? Nothing! He's so nice, and he's absolutely gorgeous." I coughed pointedly. "Oh sorry."
"So you don't remember that on presentation night, you walked up to him and told him he was a scheming person who wanted to take over the world?"
"Why would I do that?" She seemed puzzled.
"I don't know, Ciara. I don't know."
I turned to Dad, who was tying Nick's phone on Dexter. Dexter hopped into the grate and disappeared from sight. I understood. Dad would be able to track Dexter, and keep moving at the same time.
We left, and Dad led the group through a bit of the Asia exhibit. Lancelot pushed his way to the front. "So, what is this quest, exactly? Gold? Fountain of Youth?" He said the last one with a dreamy look, like he wished for it.
"Uhh...magic tablet. It's the thing that Ahk's holding," Dad said. I turned to said pharaoh, who shrugged, looking confused. Why does everyone enjoy calling him by this nickname? It kinda ticked me off.
"Well, it shouldn't be too hard to take it from him," Lancelot said in an undertone. "He seems well toned, and lean, but weak." I gaped at Lancelot, but he couldn't see me. I stepped to the front of the group.
"We're not trying to take it, we're trying to fix it." I said. "Dad, it looks like Egypt is that way." I tapped the map on his phone. "We'll have to cut through the rest of Asia."
Dad sighed. "I was hoping to avoid that." He announced the plan to the rest of our troop, who, by the way, were obviously feeling annoyed by Lancelot, Ahk and Aengos especially. I could understand Ahk, but Aengos looked just miserable. And every time Lancelot would talk, Aengos would clench his fists. I waked up to him.
"Hey. Are you okay?" I asked gently.
"I'm fine. He's just annoying. And he doesn't even act like a true knight. He seems more like an impostor."
"He kind of is. He's wax, after all." The minute the words were out of my mouth I regretted them.
Aengos glared at me head on. "It's not the same for you, to wake up and realize you aren't who you think you are! To realize that you've been alive but never felt it, and that you have mixed up emotions and beliefs because of it! Like, I may never have hated Egyptians, but one killed my cousin, my real self's cousin! I may have gotten along fine with Ahkmenrah, but I'm just a copy! I could be so much more, but I'm just wax. I'm not alive, not the way I was. And there's only one person who ever even seemed to understand, and I just realized they're a fake!"
I didn't comment, stunned, and he stalked away. Ahk walked over, no doubt about to say something. My phone buzzed. Castor. I checked his text. He sent me a picture of Sarah, Trevor and him in a restaurant. The caption read, "where r u."
Ahk gasped. I looked up at him. He looked really, really pale.
"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked, concerned. I checked the tablet, which wasn't corroding right now.
Ahk stared down at my phone, and pointed to Castor. "That's my brother."
So, authors notes shall now be in bold, and texting shall now look like normal texting:
What r u doing
I'm busy, go away
So yeah, that's going to happen. I'm going to get some sleep, but here's roll of honor!
😇ROLL OF HONOR😇
Some one asked me over a DM, PM, whatever, Does the the order of the roll of honor matter? Is the first person the best? To answer your question, no. It doesn't matter. Sometimes I'll do it one way, sometimes I'll do it another.
So bye, thanks for commenting, reading, voting, etc! #not edited! Ciao!
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Anything For You
FanfictionNatalie has been living on the streets for quite some time. She never knew her parents. She was helped by the government, which paid for school for seven years. But now her luck's run out. Someone claims she owes them money, but she isn't dependent...
