Tiana (More Than a Story Book 1)

F.O.T.O.S

(Naveen's P.O.V)

She pushes me out, but my feet were still planted to the front step, eyes glued to the door that was slammed in my face.

Finally my heart couldn't take it and, my eyes filled with tears as I walked off into the night.

I did this to myself. How dumb of me to dance with the her in the first place. She warned me, and I didn't listen. I was too caught up in my own world. A world where she was mine and I was hers.

I tried to wipe my face but fresh tears quickly came to replace those, and it didn't help that I could hear thunder in the background.  The warm wind picked up around me, blowing dirt into my already tear streaked face and pushing me back as I tried to resist it. With my own thoughts scrambled in my head, I could barely focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

Then suddenly, the force of the wind began to grow even stronger, and I realized I was being DRAGGED back...

No this couldn't be the wind.

The wind doesn't grab your shoulders like this.

I lifted my head and to my horror, there was 2 dark figures dragging me into the night. My eyes widened in fear as one of them turned their face to me. They immediately dropped me back to the ground.

The spirits swirled above and around me, creating a ring of darkness, but I was some how pinned to my place on the ground. They released terrible screeches and howls into the night, summoning even more dark shadows to join the circle.

I tried desperately to be break free of the spell but only could wait hopelessly as the ring floating above my head got closer and closer. I closed my eyes tightly, waiting for whatever was next. Then I was suddenly flooded with light.

Slowly opening my eyes, there was a bright light glaring in my face.

"Pardon me your grace." I heard a familiar voice whisper. The light was removed and my eyes had to adjust to the room that was before me.

I first saw Lawrence, who was beside me holding the lamp that was glaring in my face before. Then I saw a tall figure sitting in a chair directly across from me, with his legs crossed and head cocked to the side  "Hello froggy prince."

I blinked a couple of times. "Dr. Facilier?" He laughed at me as a sign of confirmation.

"I hope you had a nice trip. We made sure it was first class."

I felt a piercing feeling go throughout my body.
I screamed out in pain.

"Oh, excuse us my boy. My coworkers are a little eager to get this job done."

My eyes widen. "What coworkers?"

"The ones that kindly escorted you a couple moments ago." I looked at the wall and saw shadows moving on there own will, making demonic sounds as they crept through the room. "Im sure your very confused about whats going on, so let me ask you a simple question."
He leaned forward in his seat. "Does the organization Friends On The Other Side mean anything to you."

I gave him a confused face and he rolled his eyes. "Come on, I know you can do this." I still didnt say anything and another piercing sensation ripped through me. "Patients!"
He screamed irritatedly. He slowly turned back to me. "Heres a hint. We killed your brother."

My jaw hung open. "You mean...you work for...this is...you guys are F.O.T.O.S...." No one ever knew what FOTOS stood for, so this was a surprise.

"The one and only." He leaned back.

"So...you want to kill me too?" I breathed in a shaky breath. "Well fine, go head, I don't want to live anyway."

"Im glad you feel that way but its not that simple." He rolled his eyes.

I looked at Lawrence beside me and he did his best to avoid my eyes. "Oh no son. Don't look to your servant to bail you out. He's with us." He gave me a disturbing grin.

"Thats not true is it Lawrence." He didnt respond. Only looked away.

Facilier cleared his throat. "As I was saying, we cant just take your life Naveen, we need something important from you and killing you would ruin it. "

"What? My power? You want me to rule Maldonia through me?" I shook my head. "I'll never do that. Might as well shoot me now."

"Well we won't need anything from you after we have your body and soul."  I felt a cold chill run through me. "Killing you will send your soul into eternity, and we have no control over it or your body, but if we extract your soul from your body, we can just replace it with one of our own." He directed his hand to the dark figures that surrounded us now. "That way, Maldonia is as good as ours...after killing your father of course."

My heart ached in my chest, then I remembered something. "Ha but you forgot, its my soul! I have to agree to this before it can happen." I smiled, feeling a ray of hope.

"Fortunately, you already did, when I offered you a deal to keep my silence about your little incident. And I quote:" he pulled a paper from
His jacket pocket. "So it's settled, Ray will direct the chorus and band, Louis, you will work on lunch duty, and Naveen will be my school mascot. Don't think this will be a easy job son, I require you to put your heart and soul into this frog. Do we have a deal?" He put the paper down and looked me in the eyes. "And if I recall correctly, we shook on it."

"Thats not fair! I didn't mean you could own my soul! I was talking about the bullfrog costume.

He bent down, and lifted up a disgusting, warty bullfrog out of its cage off the floor. "
Consider this your costume." He grinned and I felt my blood run cold. "Ah, the joys of contract loopholes."

I wanted to freak out but was determined to try and keep myself calm. "This is a lot of work. How long did you guys plan for this?"

"We originally planned to just kidnap you and Muhammad and black mail your father with your lives, but that is basically the same thing we did to your brother. And look how well that turned out." I popped up put out my seat, but quickly sat down because of my restraints. "Please cooperate Naveen, we only have a limited time to get this done. Mardi Gras is almost here."

He stood up from his chair and fixed his suit, clearing his throat. "Any question."

Of course you idiot. At least 100. "Why did my brother have to die first?"

He rolled his eyes. "Your father is a heartless man. We gave him the option, his thrown or his child, and he picked his thrown." He shrugged his shoulders. "I mean, We would have killed and the boy anyway, but he didn't know that." He flicked his hand. "He would have done the same to you and your brother, and your deaths would have been for nothing. " he gave me a wicked smile. "This is much more effective."

"People will come look for me!" I screamed.

"No they won't." I felt a prick on my finger. I turned and saw Lawrence holding a necklace, in his hand. The evil looking necklace filled with blood and then the eyes began to glow. He put it around his neck and his body transformed into one that was identical to mine. "Until the ritual can be completed under the Mardi Gras moon, Lawrence will be taking over. After all, you have a beautiful heiress to purposes to in the morning."

I started screaming profanities in Maldonian, thrashing around in my seat. Facilier turned nodded his head at the shadows on the wall. "Now."

And then I felt the piercing again but so strong I could have passed out. I screamed but I couldn't even hear myself anymore. I could feel myself being ripped apart slowly with so much force. I knew that I had to hang on, but I didn't know how to.

A wall of green smoke began to form around me, invading my lungs and tearing up my eyes more than they already were. It seemed to be some kind of poison.

I could feel myself slipping and knew I couldn't take this pain much longer. The green wall slowly shaded into darkness as I slipped into a deep sleep.