The Mearsmaine Chronicles 1 - The Return of the Queen

Chapter 31 - The beginning of the end

The five friends left the house in a hurry with Elizabeth leading the way. Lewis and Nathaniel exchanged a look: what had happened to the girl ten minutes before remained a mystery to them, and one she was not in the mood to reveal, apparently. Nathaniel carried a backpack with the crown and he had already decided that, if anything went wrong, they would get out of that world in less than a second, the poor boy had seen enough guns for this life and the next.

After installing themselves in Cedric's car, they drove away from his house, making the same way they had done the day before. They parked the car some streets away from where the market was placed and, without saying a word, got out of the vehicle. An atmosphere of worry and nervousness had made its way to their brains: Elizabeth had a bad feeling about that plan, but she couldn't figure out why and she perfectly knew that they had no time to draw out another plan, whatever it was. Lewis and Nigel kept exchanging glances that nobody knew exactly what they meant, not even themselves. Cedric had never done something like that, he wasn't exactly part of that adventurous group that had spent a year causing and fixing problems at Mearsmaine. Nathaniel, in his turn, was trying not to let that whole situation get under his nerves: after all, he was almost the Royal Guard's leader, he had to keep his head cold.

Elizabeth nodded at Cedric, who had been staring at her: it meant that they could go forward. Cedric was the one who knew the entrance which was supposed to get them in the building. However, first was Lizz's turn to do something: she had to make them invisible. It was a complicated spell. If it was only making herself invisible, it would be easy enough, but five people? That was basically a crowd. She felt Nathaniel's hand on top of her shoulder as she was closing her eyes to concentrate on what she wanted to do. Nevertheless, she gazed back at him with a questioning expression on her face, the same expression the rest of the group was wearing.

'I'll help you with the spell.' Nathaniel simply said without further explanation.

The Queen cocked an eyebrow at him, crossing her arms in front of her chest. 'And how do you suppose you're going to do that?'

Nate narrowed his eyes on her. 'I'll get inside your head, love, unless you have something to hide in there.'

She lifted both her eyebrows, still staring at his grey eyes, but then her mouth showed a cheeky smile, which made Nate's face turn into a suspicious expression. 'Even if I had something to hide, I could still do it with you inside my head. But anyway, how are you supposed to get inside?'

The black haired boy threw her his heart-melting smile and, closing his eyes, he projected his mind into Elizabeth's. The blonde girl understood what she had to do and a small parcel of their minds linked, just enough to let them communicate and let him help her to cast the spell. They both thought about what they wanted to do, concentrating on that idea of having the five of them invisible to the others' eyes. When they felt the magic cover their bodies, the two of them opened their eyes, meeting each other's faces once again, but there was something different. The color. Elizabeth looked around and something surprised her: her friends were in black and white, she was in black and white and Nathaniel certainly was in black and white.

Lewis had a really strange expression on his face, as if he had just seen an elephant wearing a dress, which made Elizabeth let go of a giggle. Her cousin looked at her and grinned. 'This certainly is a nice way of letting us know that nobody can see us.'

Nathaniel threw him an angry look. 'People can still hear us, you idiot!' He shout-whispered.

Lewis cocked an eyebrow at his best friend. 'Then why are you speaking, asshole?'

The black haired boy made a movement towards his friend, but Lizz, with a roll of her eyes, grabbed his arm. 'Guys, this is not the time. Let's go.' She said as Lewis showed Nathaniel his tongue, which the later received by muttering some words.