Forlot - Books 10-12

Chapter Nineteen

Minutes had passed by, and I was still chasing the mysterious figure. As much as I did not desire to, I had to stop and rest. My legs were aching from all the running, and I needed to catch my breath.

When my body could not take it anymore, I stopped in my tracks and bent over, breathing heavily. I rested a hand on the bark of a tree that I was next to and watched as the figure disappeared.

Disappeared into an old building...that was not far from where I was.

When making the decision to giving myself a rest, I was also debating whether or not to continue tagging along with the dude. I had decided to give up, return to the mansion, and attempt to get some sleep.

But after seeing him or her going into the building...

I pulled my hand away from the tree and stood up straight. I slowly walked up, my low heels making clicking sounds, to the small building as I examined it.

I had my suspicions that the place was abandoned. Maybe haunted, considering that ghosts reside in Forlot. It would not surprise me any.

I knew that I had made up my mind in retreating, but that was only because I assumed that the person would be heading off to some place that I never would have known that he or she would be at.

Let us say that both my determination and curiosity got the best of me. Now that I had seen where he or she was, I could not just stop. Besides, whoever it was broke into the mansion and stuck his or her nose in where it did not belong, and that was my room.

My chest was heaving up and down. I was completely out of breath, and my legs protested. They no longer felt like running.

I hardly had any strength in me to keep going, which made wonder a bit if I should just forget about the dude. Still, I ended up entering the eerie building.

The outside of it was a mess. It was painted blue, and the roof was painted white. Though, most of the paint was coming off both places. There was a door. Or should I say, a doorway. Two windows were on either side of the doorway and had been smashed.

I was greeted with darkness and placed a hand on the wall. I spread out my thumb and fingers and felt for a light switch. I needed to hurry before something bad happened to me in the dark.

As if the Lord heard my plea - which He probably did - I felt a switch and flipped it. The lights flickered on and off for about ten seconds before staying on to drive away the eerie blackness.

"Phew." I wiped my forehead with my sleeve and surveyed the room that I was in.

I had a sneaky hunch that I was in a theater. There was a narrow aisle and rows of chairs on either side of it. The chairs were red and looked like recliners.

In front of the chairs was an open stage. It had a couple of red curtains, pieces of rope, and white, empty bags lying on top of it.

As I made my way down the aisle, I cupped my hands around my mouth and called out to see if I was truly alone - or not.

"Hello? Is anybody there? If you are an innocent monster, do not worry. I am the Monster Protector. I can help you."

I lowered my arms to my sides and waited for a response of any kind. Alas, none was given.

But we both know that I was not alone.

And I was surely not mistaken when I felt the bottoms of two flat shoes hitting the side of my face.

I cried out and fell to the floor. I landed on my side and hissed in pain.

Gosh. How many more times can I get hurt today?

Rubbing the area where I was hit, I got up and saw the figure. The figure had her arm wrapped around some rope and was hanging from it, smiling evilly at me.

I uttered a low growl. "You," I said. "I was afraid that I would run into you."

Margaret let go of the rope and landed on her feet.

"On the contrary..." she said. "...you fell for my trap."

"Trap? What trap?" I gazed all around. "I do not see any trap."

She cackled. "Margie, Margie, Margie. You are so gullible. I was not planning on physically trapping you." She picked up her bow. "You see, I lured you in here. I was the one who poked my head in your room. By the way, that used to be my bedroom."

I crossed my arms. "If you still wanted that room, then you maybe should have not left Mr. Hawk, Stanley, and the others."

"Shut up!" She picked up her arrow and set it on and next to her bow. "You should never bring that up. As a matter of fact, you never will again. You know why?"

"Let me guess. You are going to try to kill me."

"Yes and no." Margaret aimed her arrow at me. "I will kill you, but I will not try. I will do it and succeed. And then maybe I will get some respect."

This time, I was not worried about her killing me. After all, I now had my weapon.

"Sorry to tell you this..." I said as I pulled my crossbow and arrow out of my bag. "...but murdering people, especially innocent lives, will never give anyone respect." I set my arrow on top of my crossbow and aimed it at her. "You will be hated even more."

That was when we heard another voice.

"Margaret, stop!"

We turned our attentions to the stage and saw two girls floating on it.

"Margaret, please! You are better than this!"