The Child of the Moon

Chapter Ten

10.

I wake up to someone shaking my body.
"Wake up, Cynthia!" I hear a direct yell in my ear. It's a rough voice, that almost sounds masculine.
"Five more minutes." I mutter, laying myself flat on the bumpy surface of the roof.
"Cynthia! Phoebus got kidnapped!" A voice shouts.
I sit my body up as quick as I can, ignoring the fact that I pulled a muscle. "What?" I panic.
My eyes flutter open to the sight of Jove, and Astra parked on the side of me. I'm on the roof, from where I fell asleep last. When I glance up, Phoebus and Nestor are near the hatch Phoebus and I came from.
"Told you it would work." Jove chuckles. I now realize it was her gruff voice that told me about Phoebus's kidnapping, even though he is right there.
Astra gives out her hand, and I take it, pulling me upwards. "You're so lucky we found you before Halley," she says, "Or else she would have given you this big lecture that you shouldn't go off like that."
"Are you speaking from experience?" I ask, brushing rocks off my shorts.
"Yes." She says, eyes widening.
"Well, it's obvious we all have a bunch of questions," Nestor cuts in, then gives a glance to Phoebus then me, "but all I want to know is if these two did anything, oh you know, personal last night." He wiggles his eyebrows on "personal".
"I- uh," I stammer, blocking my face from the crowd, "We-"
Phoebus smirks and shrugs, "It was nothing. We both couldn't sleep. We decided to walk around and find a place to roam. And then we found the roof and we passed out. No biggie."
"Then why did we find you arms wrapped around each other when sleeping?" Jove asks, crossing her arms.
"Guys, it's none of our business. Even if they were... kissing last night, we should at least give them a bit of privacy." Astra says, shyly, playing with her dark, thick hair. "We need to get back to our rooms before Halley finds that we're out here. If she does, I don't know what she'll do, but it's going to be bad."
We head back to our rooms as silent as we can be, daring not to make a movement at any sound. Not a single noise or peep comes out of any single one of us.
I may never know why Astra is so afraid of her own mother.
Right when we think we make it, guess who's in front of the two rooms when we arrive. Yep, you guessed it.
Halley.
Her polite British accent turns haunting. "Where have you been?" She shouts, making me nervous that one person is going to poke their head out of another hotel room and yell at us. "I thought you were kidnapped by a Child of the Dwarf Planets! You had me worried sick! If any of you were kidnapped-" she points her finger at me, sternly, with a facial expression so angry you can't describe it in words, "-especially you, Cynthia, it would have been awful. They could have used you or maybe even kill you!"
Astra was right: I did not want to hear Halley's twenty minute rant. We all blank out until she asks, "Where were you guys?"
I begin to twiddle my thumbs. What do we tell her?
"We were taking a walk around the hotel." Phoebus lies. His face is still, like he's telling the truth. His poker face is incredible. "We were bored that you weren't up yet, so we took a stroll around."
Halley's eyes narrow at Phoebus. She stares at him for a good, long minute, and Phoebus has his poker face on.
Halley quits it after what feels like an hour. She smiles. "Alright, then. You all must be starving since I only got you all McDonald's for lunch and nothing for dinner. I'm calling room service. Is everyone fine with waffles?"
We all stand there, blank for a second, until Nestor breaks the silence by saying, "Sorry, I like pancakes."
"Oh, that's fine. I'll order," Halley counts all of us up on her fingers, "Five waffles and one pancake."
It's confusing that Halley was in the annoyed, aggravated mood, and now she's just turned happy like she's going insane. Her persona changed from one attitude to the next, and it doesn't seem normal.
Halley would like Nestor, and Phoebus to go back to Jove, Astra and I's room while she orders breakfast.
Now that I know that Halley takes the employees' memories of her paying them, so they don't remember her having to pay it makes me have a completely different perspective of Halley. She probably did that to get her mansion, and the car, and these nice hotel rooms. It's messed up to do that, and wrong, but what am I suppose to tell her? "I don't like that you're doing what you're doing, because it's wrong, please stop"? She's a comet. An astronomical thing in our universe. Who knows how powerful she can be alone?
Once we're finished with breakfast, Jove gives the weapons from the bag to everyone (except for Halley and I since we don't have one). Nobody changes into clothes, since nobody thought that far ahead, like Jove said.
I still have the bandage on my arm, and it's beginning to fall off. Astra still has the Pisces doodle on the back of her hand, near her wrist. All the other doodles are almost gone. Phoebus still has the cut from two days ago laying on his cheek, but it's healing and nearly gone since he didn't pick at it.
"So, where off to now?" I ask, twiddling my thumbs.
"Off the Eudora street." Nestor mentions, with a casual manner. "To the Hideout of the Dwarf Planets."
---
Anxiety races up and down my skin the closer and closer we get there. It only takes about five minutes, but my pulse is racing, due to anxiety, fear and sitting next to Phoebus.
I begin to question my actions. What am I doing here? What if this is a trap? Why should I trust them? Then, right before we get there, I notice something. Every doubt that I have or asked in my head is something Dad said to me before about my new friends. About the friends I've never had.
It's about 9:00 am, and Halley came up with a plan.
She's going to distract the guards at the front door, saying we surrender, then Jove, and Astra are going to attack from behind. Halley, Jove, and Astra are going to put on the armor from the guards, and take Phoebus and Nestor in as prisoners. Nestor is going to be dropped off at the control room, and Phoebus is going to break in and retrieve the scepter.
"But what am I going to do?" My curiosity poking out like a sore thumb, needing to know everything.
"We can't risk you going in there with the Children of Makemake. If this is the Hideout of the Dwarf Planets, most of the Children of the Dwarf Planets will be there, and the ones who aren't are trying to hunt down us." Halley explains.
I groan, slouching against the seat. "Am I just going to wait in the car and do nothing? Like before?"
"Yes, I'm afraid you'll have to."
Seriously? I'm stuck here doing nothing, again? What if a Child of a Dwarf Planet comes out and sees me. What will happen then? I'll get caught and their "only hope" will be gone.
They park around the corner, near Rhode Island Hospital, so we're not spotted. I can still see the house clearly, but we blend too well with the cars parked at the hospital for the Child of the Dwarf Planets to notice us.
Jove, Halley, and Astra get out of the car, slamming the door behind them. Nestor moves his way up to the front seat, leaving his dagger there, and changes the radio to rap. I plug my ears, annoyed with the stupid music.
Phoebus is prepared to get up, but then sees how I am reacting, so he slides back down into the previous position he was in.
Nestor, at this moment, is singing the song "Sunflower" by "Post Malone", as the atmosphere grows intense between Phoebus and I. I begin to lace my fingers onto each other.
"Thank you," he mutters, after a split second, "Nobody has ever really noticed. Not even my best friends." He tilts his head towards Nestor. "Every time they've interpreted I've said 'I'm fine', when I'm frankly not. It's just so hard talking about these things because it's my mother, and..."
"You don't have to tell me now, if you don't want to." I place my hand on his and butterflies shimmer in my gut. "I get what you're going through is hard."
"Thanks for understanding." Phoebus beams, and he continues to keep his hand on mine, and make my stomach do loops.
He stops when Nestor calls Phoebus over to check out a new song by a famous artist, and Phoebus leaves his staff at seat. Phoebus doesn't look too intrigued about it. Maybe he likes a different genre?
I snap my head backwards to see if the three girls have done their job, yet, but when I glare over, the guard arms are hooked around the girls, and carrying them inside the hideout, slamming the door shut right behind them.
"Uh, guys," I stammer, shifting my body to them, "Did you see what just happened?"
"No." Nestor hears my shakey tone. "Why?"
"I'm pretty sure they took Halley, Astra, and Jove in their hideout, keeping the doors locked behind them." I sweat, having even more panic in my voice. What are we going to do now?
"Oh no," Phoebus gasps, pushing his way over next to me to see through the car's back window, "This is bad. If they took them inside, that means they'll torture them in the prison cells."
I feel my tongue go dry, as I gulp, "How?"
"They'll torture them, with a slice or cut in their skin, for every lie the Children of the Dwarf Planets think they tell about the certain information they need." Phoebus informs me.
"Like what?"
"Our battle strategies, every single weakness of ours, and even worse... your parentage."
---
"Jove and Astra will both be hard to break. They're tough. I don't know too much about Halley. If she has a weak spot, she'll speak right away." Nestor explains, finally turning the stereo down.
We're in the seats behind the driver's seat. The seats in the middle of the car and have the doors on the side. Both men have their weapons in their hands, ready for an attack, if necessary.
Nestor says that Phoebus will clear the way for us, when we sneak in, then Nestor's going to find their control room. While Nestor holds his dagger, he'll hack into their system and find out where the women are located. I'm basically going to be backup for Phoebus.
Yeah, I'm happy I'm going to play a part in this, but can't I at least be useful and not worthless for once? Or play a crucial part in this plan? Isn't that scepter made for me to use?
Nestor twists the key to the car in the keyhole, and the engine stops. He yanks the key out of the keyhole and he pushes open the front car door, escaping from the car.
Phoebus and I do the same, but out of the side car doors, in the middle row.
"Hey, Phoebus," Nestor calls out, holding his hand out, with the keys in the center of his palm, "Catch."
He tosses the keys to Phoebus, and Phoebus shield his face. The keys hit his stomach, and he chuckles when they bounce off of him and land on the floor. He bends down to pick it up, and he shoves it in his back pocket.
Him putting the keys in his pocket reminds me about my phone. I touch my back pocket, expecting to feel a lump, but then I remember I left my phone back at the hotel.
Now, I can't call my father to let him know where I am, but then again, there's a hospital right here, and Dad would kill me if I called him casually after going missing.
Since the guards took Astra, Halley, and Jove, there are none at the entrance, so we're free to walk in, if the doors aren't.
We crouch down to knee level, and cross over to the building with the protection of the bushes, so the Children of the Dwarf Planets won't see us, in case they're looking out for more people.
Once we get to the doors, Phoebus twists the handle and pushes it open. He keeps his staff held out in front of his body.
He wanders deeper into the building, only to come out two seconds later and whisper, "All clear."
I slip into the base of the Dwarf Planets. Nestor follows in behind me, and let me tell you, the inside is not what I expect for a secret hideout for rebel kids.
The place is way nicer than 478 Magihild street. There's a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling that glimmers with crystals of all shapes and sizes, and a rod of gold. The walls are painted a color of royal purple, and remind me of Halley and Astra's eyes. There's a large staircase displayed before us, and a flat, wooden floor below us. When I glance to my left, there's a room with the door open. When I peek inside, it has mats aligned on the floor in a certain pattern. The walls have weapon racks with many weapons, but only five types. There are dummies lying in the corner, and I hear grunting from the corner I can't see.
When I make my way closer, I see a man and a woman there. The woman has her back faced towards me, and the man catches a glimpse at me. I panic and lay my back on the outside wall of the room.
Phoebus notices my panic and grows worried. He reaches out to grab my hand, but then he hears the woman's voice, and his head shoots up.
"You think a Child of Makemake would fight like that?" Her voice is deep and gruff, like Jove's, but maybe even deeper. "You need to get a piece of my hair at least. We need to figure out that newcomer's parentage. Imagine if she's the Child of the Moon, and if we caught her and the Child of the Sun. We'd be unstoppable!"
"Yeah," The male peeps out, "Yeah, I know."
"Come at me again."
And the grunting continues.
Phoebus and I exchange nervous looks. Nestor bites his lip, and eyes Phoebus and I.
"All guards report to your stations, immediately," A voice states, coming from nowhere, but everywhere at the same time, "We don't want any unwelcome visitors."
The voice was like an intercom, but there aren't any intercoms around. The voice wasn't a computer either. It was an actual human voice, because of the way they pronounced their words when they spoke.
Phoebus tilts his head towards the upstairs. There's a door down below the stairs, but his look insists we go up.
Nestor is already jogging up the steps, while I'm still trying to process how the voice worked like that.
There aren't any vents around... My head thinks.
I continue to ponder, until I feel fingers on my wrist. Phoebus has his hand stuck and wrapped around my wrist and he's pulling me up the stairs.
I hide my face, that's burning scarlet red.
The stairs make no sound as we creep up them. They're silent, and in much better condition then the stairs back at Halley's house.
We come to multiple doors leading in different directions. We hear distinct chatter from one, so we decide to move away from that one, but in another, we hear a flush.
Crap.
I tug at one of the doors and fall through when it swings open. Nestor and Phoebus follow behind me, as we scramble out of the way.
The room we happen to be in is a large (and I mean humongous) bedroom that is covered in pastel colors. Swirls and dots curve into the corners of the wall. There are windows are the far side of the living quarters, that have curtains that break the theme of the innocent, playful scheme. Instead, they are black with plastic, scarlet red flowers sewed into the bottom. There are rows of bunk beds once every three feet, and even though there may be a bed made for a full mattress, there's only a twin lying there. There are no lamps or electronics anywhere to be found, but there are multiple cabinets stuck in the corner, with about four to eight name tags per drawer.
We shove ourselves into the room, slamming the door behind us, and lining up against the wall, not daring to make any sound waves.
After a sound of running water and a twist of a handle, we hear loud thumps heading down the stairs, further away, but right when we think we're safe, the footsteps pause.
"Jetaime!" A voice calls out. It's high-pitched, and almost sounds like they're screaming for help. "We need more toilet paper! Get a Child of Makemake already! And hurry! I don't want to wipe my bottom with a towel."
A couple seconds later, more footsteps appear out of the blue. They're much heavier than the previous footsteps.
"Fine, fine," Another voice groans, "Just let me get a roll of toilet paper from the Makemake quarters, and I'll be right out."
The footsteps grow closer and louder. I feel my body hug the wall with a tight grip, not letting go, like my life depends on it. Phoebus and Nestor hold their weapons out in front of them.
The hinges on the do squeak and a figure comes into appearance. He closes the door behind him, and moves to one of the beds. We're not in his sight yet, but right when he turns around, we'll be visible.
He tugs out a roll of toilet paper from under the bed, and places it on the bed when he pushes himself up. He grabs the toilet paper once more and looks behind himself.
He gasps.
"Jetaime?" The voice outside yells, stomping their foot. "Are you almost done?"
Phoebus and Nestor sprint up to Jetaime and put their weapons under his neck.
"Yeah," Jetaime peeps out, "don't worry. It's stuck under the bed. It will take me about five minutes to get out."
"Then use another pack!"
"This is the only one left."
The voice complains, and starts to whine like a child. You can hear them wincing when they yell.
Jetaime puts his hands up, and whispers, "I'm not here to harm you. I'm on your side. Believe it or not, I was going to try to come find you after I was done training with Valda."
Valda? Who is Valda?
I study his features more and begin to realize he's the man that was training with the woman.
He's about Phoebus's height, but I can tell he's older, by the way he's standing. He's talking like he knows the world and its troubles. He has no defense or weapon with him.
"And why should we believe you?" Nestor questions, glaring at him. "Didn't you take our friends?"
"That wasn't me. I was going to try to stall them from torturing your friends after I was done with Valda. She forced me at that fight because she knew 'how I was around prisoners'."
"Wait," I interrupt, stepping on the side of Phoebus and Nestor, and at an eye level with their weapons, "He's telling the truth. I saw him in the training room and he saw me, but he didn't tell anyone that he saw me."
"I knew you guys were the Children of the Solar System at first glance," Jetaime continues, with his arms still up, "Because no Child of the Dwarf Planets has grey eyes. They all have either brown, green, or red."
I don't believe Jetaime when he says red eyes, but when I look into his eyes, and instead of a color of green or brown they reveal to be red. A dim color of red that can be mistaken for a bright color of brown.
"Why do you want to help us?" Phoebus asks, with his serious glare. "Don't the Dwarf Planets want want to take over the Solar System and make the humans worship and gaze upon them?"
"Not every Child of a Dwarf Planet wants to do that." Jetaime explains, beginning to put his hands down. "I realize what they're doing is wrong. Just let me deliver this roll of toilet paper and I'll be right back." He points to the roll in his hand.
Nestor and Phoebus lower their weapons, but they still keep an eye on Jetaime, as he opens the door and walks out to the screaming voice of what seems like a child.
Jetaime leaves the door a crack open, so we might be able to hear what they're saying, but when they talking at a normal dynamic, they can't be heard a bit. All you can hear are mutters.
Then all of a sudden, we here an annoyed, "Thank you!"
Footsteps cross into the bathroom and back out. Jetaime is about to go back into the bedroom, but the voice shouts something else.
"Aren't you supposed to be going down into the dining room for lunch with all of your other ninety-seven siblings? It's rare for the Children of Makemake to get first lunch. You should enjoy it."
"Yes, I'm just grabbing something from the quarters," Jetaime responds, his tone shaking.
"You better hurry," the voice says in a bratty sing-song tone, "You only have ten minutes left. Or else you're going to have to eat with the animals." The voice chuckles and the footsteps draw away, into the distance.
Jetaime makes it inside the room, and closes the door behind him.
Nestor and Phoebus lower their weapons once Jetaime enters.
"I'm sorry about the rude introduction, but I'm Jetaime." He says, holding out his hand for a shake. "I'm a Child of Makemake. The Leading Sibling, actually. I guide all my others siblings and keep this place organized."
"I'm Cynthia," I say, holding out my hand, preparing for a shake, "that's Phoebus-" I point to him. "-He's the Child of the Sun and that's Nestor-" I point towards Nestor "-He's the Child of Mercury."
"Cynthia.." Jetaime mutters. "Strange. In Greek that means... oh well. Nice to meet you, Cynthia."
He goes to shake my hand, but Phoebus cuts in to shout, "Cynthia, don't do it!"
But it's too late Jetaime and I have touched hands, and he has shaked it.
Right afterwards, he backs away in shock. His eye go wide and he takes a minute to process what happened.
"Jetaime?" I ask. "Are you okay?"
Jetaime whispers, breathless, "You're the Child of the Moon."