Forlot: Not What I Am - Book Twenty

Chapter Forty-Five

All of us were worried about my son. Cindy was the only person who was also angry. I should have expected that Anti-Caleb would pull off something like this. He kidnapped my son because he wanted to lure me to him.

There was no time to waste. I scooped up Tamara and handed her to Kara. Tamara cooed and grasped my fingers with those little hands of hers. She kicked her tiny feet and called me by daddy.

"Dada! Daddy!"

Such a sweetheart. She did not want me to leave her. I planted a kiss on her precious nose, and she smiled and cooed happily. I communicated with her in baby talk that I would return and that we would play together once this nightmare of a story was over. I glanced at Kara and ordered her to keep an eye on the baby girl. She gave me her word, and I took off in the other direction.

Following my trail were my sister, my cousin, my girlfriend, the main characters, and the real worlders whom I helped save. Retrieving Cal was not going to be easy. We would have to get past a ton of evil antis.

Wait a minute. We never had to go past Anti-Caleb and his minions because they all were waiting for us. The antis had surrounded the courthouse and either wielded guns or spears. Anti-Caleb was standing on the balcony that led into the mayor's office, and with him were Anti-Joan and Anti-Collin.

As we were making our way to the courthouse, guess who showed up? Mary Sue. She leaped out from behind a bush and in front of us, startling us in the process. When I realized that it was her, my anxiety died down.

"Mary Sue," I said her name. "You should not have done that. You gave us a fright."

"I did not mean to," she answered. "Sorry that I did not show up when you were kidnapped by Jorgie's anti. I was in therapy and could not skip it."

"That is okay, Mary Sue. I had more than enough helpers."

"I am going to make it up to you anyway, Caleb. I ran into the good antis and the antis who turned good. My anti. Anti-Ava. Anti-Cindy, Anti-Jorgie. And Anti-Margie. They really desire to help you, but feel awkward about it. So they and I devised a plan."

"What is the plan?" Cindy asked.

"That I cannot tell you. You will have to be patient until later."

I adjusted my glasses. "Hopefully, it will be very soon. This book is almost over."

"I know that, Caleb." She hugged me tightly. "I love you."

Cindy did a fake cough. "Ahem!"

Mary Sue pulled away from me and glared at her. "Cool your jets. I do not love him the way that you do." She jumped over the bush and ran like lightning.

My girlfriend came up to me, took my hand into hers, and squeezed it. "I cannot wait until this event is behind us," she whispered.

"You can say that again," I whispered back.

We continued our run and made it to the courthouse. Anti-Caleb stared down at us with a creepy grin, and his cape was blowing in the wind. He rested his hands on the balcony rail.

"Well, well, well," Anti-Caleb said. "If it is not my friend who betrayed me."

I slipped my hand out of my girlfriend's and pointed at myself. I was confused as to who he was talking to.

"Yes! I am talking to you. Who else would I be talking to?"

I pointed at Cindy.

He facepalmed. "You are such an idiot. I cannot believe that I even tried to turn you into me. I struck your heart so that you would have the same powers as me. I told you how we would rid the world of gays, transgenders, anti-vaxxers, flat earthers, strict Christians, religions, bisexuals, vegetarians, and fat and thin acceptance. They hate people like you and me because we know the truth."

I balled my hands into fists and took a step forward. One of the antis who was in front of me held a spear and aimed the sharp end at me. I demanded that he get it away from me.

"You are not the one who makes the demands around here," Anti-Caleb stated.

"I will give you credit that you are correct. The mayor of Forlot is the boss," I replied.

He did not like that and slammed his hands on the balcony railing. "I am now the ruler of your town, not that dumbfounded mayor. You will do as I say. Or else."

"If you and your goons want to take over Forlot, be my guest," Collin spoke up. "You just need to fight us."

"Yeah!" Joan agreed. "The winners get Forlot."

My anti put his hands behind his back and chuckled. "I do like what I am hearing. I say that we fight. But I so desire to put a twist in it. You know. To make the fight more interesting and enjoyable."

He held up a hand with his thumb and fingers outstretched. Light in the form of purple and black shot out from his palm and hit Collin.

"Collin!" his girlfriend Ari shouted.

The dangerous light vanished - and my cousin became a mindless slave. His eyes were black and purple, and the ends of his mouth reached the bottoms of his ears.

"Master..." Collin said in a low tone.

"Collin!" Ari repeated his name. She grabbed ahold of his arms and shook him. "Snap out of it, Collin!"

"What did you do to him?!" Joan yelled at my anti.

Anti-Caleb tossed back his head and laughed. "You will have an idea of what I did right about...now."

More beams of the same kind of light shot out and hit everybody but me.

I was Forlot's only hope now.