The Gift of Chaos

19 - The power of teamwork

As soon as we opened the door, Scott pelted to the right. In the same instant, shards of ice sped through the air towards us, only narrowly missing us, as well as...

"Are those... baubles?!" Scott exclaimed.

"Yeah... I thought it would be original..." I said as a glass ball shattered at my feet.

"Come on, they're not going to take long to catch up to us!"

Sure enough, I could hear their footsteps behind us. I clutched the book under my arm. My stomach was full of snakes. If my idea failed... I couldn't see how we were going to get out of this mess. Soon, we were at the far end of the building.

"The access to the roof is through here," Scott said, skidding to a halt in front of a door.

"How do you know?" I asked. "I can't see it being open to students."

"It's not," Scott agreed between breaths. "But a bunch of students sneaked up there once, and I heard them talking about it."

He pulled the handle, but it was locked.

"Milady, if you'd be so kind," Scott said.

I rolled my eyes and pressed my hands to the door.

"Open," I said, and with a sharp click and a long metallic creak, it did.

We quickly slipped through and locked the door behind us. Sure enough, we were on a roof.

"We need to get higher," I said, looking around. "There!"

I pointed to a metal ladder leading to another roof higher up. I wasn't exactly crazy about heights, but if my plan was to work, they were necessary. We clambered up it, but it was freezing and covered in snow. Halfway up it, my foot slipped and I would have fallen if Scott hadn't steadied me. I glanced down at him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concern in his eyes.

"Yeah. Come on, we haven't much time. They'll probably start breaking through in a minute.

We reached the top. It was one of the tallest buildings in the village, so we had a pretty good view of the area. and carefully looked down. The monsters seemed to have caught on to our plans to stop them, because they were all gathering around the school. The shield had gone, too. My exhaustion had probably made it less resistant. At least the others would be safe for now. We just had to cross our fingers. I opened the book and gave it to Scott.

"Hold it open for me, would you?"

He blinked, but obeyed without protest. Luckily, the moon gave me just enough light to see by.

"What d'you have in mind?" Scott inquired.

"The book made my story become real. This time, I'm trying to use it intentionally."

Scott's eyes widened at me, his jaw dropping.

"How d'you intend to do that?!"

"I finished the story. Now, we just have to re-enact it."

I hope... I added to myself.

"You sure this will work?"

"No, but it's all we have at this point..." I replied.

I stood in front of him, took a deep breath and read.

"By my hand, you appeared. By my hand, you shall now disappear. You shall no longer harm the people around me. This is not where you must be."

I held out my arms and closed my eyes, trying not to let the icy wind blowing on my face or through my hair bother me. I couldn't help shivering a little, though.

"Monsters, disappear!" I continued. "Monsters, disappear!"

I kept going, but it didn't seem to be working. I didn't understand. Was it because I was too tired? Or was I doing something wrong? I couldn't figure it out, and we didn't have time to find another plan. If we didn't hurry, the village would be finished. Maybe it just took a little while...

After the tenth time, however, when still nothing had happened, I was just about to give up, when Scott began repeating the words with me. I stared at him in confusion but he just nodded at me to continue. He held out his hand, which I took, still not understanding. But the moment my hand touched his, a tremendous energy exploded from under us in the form of bright circles of light.

We watched as the monsters were struck one by one. They shuddered and growled in pain, then vanished. We listened a moment for signs that some had survived, but there were none.

"We did it!" I cried excitedly.

"You did it," Scott said. "I just held the book."

I laughed and hugged him.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"... Exhausted, but I'll be fine."

"Come on, let's go get the others."

So we made our way back down to the basement, though we kept an eye open for leftover creatures, just in case. But there were none in sight. We released the younger ones from the basement, and were just coming out of the school to make our way home when several cars came into view. One of them I would have known anywhere.

"Mum! Dad!" Lucas squealed happily.
Sure enough, there they were.

"Mine are there, too!" Slowly, more cars were arriving, with villagers and curious onlookers flooding the streets, trying to figure out what had happened. The buildings were still damaged, but none were in critical condition from what I could tell.

"Riley! Lucas!"

"Mum!" Lucas cried and hobbled as fast as he could to hug them.

"Scott? Girls? Where are you?"

"Over here, Dad!" Scott answered, waving.

It was a miracle we could hear anything in the commotion, I thought. But the Millers found their children and hugged them tightly.

"What on earth happened to your leg?" Mum asked Scott. "And to all these buildings?"

"I fell," he said.

"As for the rest, it's a really long story," I said with a tired smile.

"May I?" asked Mrs Miller, indicating Lucas's leg.

"Oh, we'd be grateful if you could, please," Dad answered.

After a brief examination, Scott's mother said:

"It is broken, but the splint was strong, it kept it from getting worse. Good work, Scott."

"Actually, Riley did that piece of handiwork, Mum," he said, putting an arm around me.

I flushed.

"I just hope his foot isn't more badly damaged..."

"We'll have to check with some X-Rays," Scott's father said as he examined the foot as well. "But I'm not too worried. I'll drive him to the hospital at once."

"But it's Christmas Eve!" Scott protested.

"You'll be back in a few hours," Mr. Miller promised. "And I'll be with you."

He lifted an unhappy looking Lucas and set him in his car. Scott and I looked at each other.

"Mum and I'd better get home, check on the twins."

"What about Tommy?" I asked.

"He'll come with us until we find his mother," Mrs. Miller said gently, patting Tommy's head.

I waved as they drove off. Then, Mum asked:

"So. Now, would you tell us what happened?"