Book 1: The Crown Prince (The Kid Emperor of Occultoria)

Chapter 12 - An Angry Poltergeist

Max turned around and faced his hunter. The Giant looked like he was starving.
Max was beginning to realize that Purgatorio was indeed a tough world, where everyone was hungry and there was not enough food to go around. All the spirits he had seen were hungry in one way or another, whether it be for food, for love, or for life.
Eddie piped up. "I'll save us."
He began transforming into his dragon form, but the Giant reached out one hairy hand and swatted Eddie like a fly.
Eddie careened the candy wall and fainted.
Max knew that it was all up to him again.
He held up his Glove of Vulcan. He was certain that it was fully charged again.
The Giant took one rumbling step forward, shaking the ground.
Max raised his glove. "Flamma!"
 Fire burst forth, but the Giant dumped his rivulets of drool on it, extinguishing all flames.
The Crown Prince watched as the fire from his glove sizzled into smoke that rose into the air.
They were backed into a corner. There was no way out.
The situation seemed hopeless, but Max had an ace in the hole. He had a trump card.
He decide he would use the idea he had.
He was going to talk to the Giant, sympathize and reason with him.
The Giant lurched forward, spraying spit and drool everywhere.
Holding out both arms menacingly, he grunted and groaned like Frankenstein.
Max held up both arms in a mock sign of surrender and a gesture of peace.
"Look," he said, stepping forward. "I know how you feel."
Although he was a tad nervous, he managed to keep his nerves in check.
Ungal stood still, paying attention.
Emboldened that his tactic was working, Max continued. "You're sad. I get it. But Ellie is gone. You have to move on."
Ungal paused, as though frozen. "Ellie gone?"
Max truly felt compassionate. He could imagine himself in the Giant's shoes, waiting for a girl that never came. It must have been lonely.
"Yeah," Max said. "Maybe you should go too. Who knows? Maybe you'll see her in the afterlife."
Ungal's furious face softened. He looked nostalgic now.
"I go?" he murmured.
"You should," said Max, glad that his last strategy of appealing to the Giant's romantic side was working, because that was now his only defense.
"Just imagine Ellie waiting for you in the afterlife," he went on. "Waiting to give you her love."
The Giant's face took on a dreamy look. It seemed he was in a trance.
Max discreetly took Eddie by the collar of his shirt and started dragging him past the Giant, while waving for the cat to follow his lead.
They made it all the way around the corner, out of Ungal's sight, when Eddie woke up and got on his feet.
Max put a finger to his lips. "Sshhh...quietly. Let's go."
Eddie nodded and followed his leader.
 Ariel hopped back onto Max's shoulder. "Great job again," she said. "Using your brain instead of your brawn. But don't you think you just gave Ungal false hope?"
"No," Max whispered back, quickening his pace. "It wasn't false hope. You said that no one knew what happened to Ellie. She could very well be waiting for him in the afterlife. And why not? When it could be one way or another, I'd prefer to think it's the hopeful outcome When it's a choice between positive and negative thinking, I'd rather think positively."
Ariel said nothing.
The three of them were about to exit the maze on the other side when they heard a loud roar.
Max glanced at Ariel.
Ungal was probably gaining on them.
"Let's go!" shouted Max.
"I guess he thought about it and decided not to head into the afterlife," remarked Ariel.
As they burst out onto the other side, they could see the Queen's Castle in the distance. It looked like a smaller version of the Imperial Palace back in Occultoria City, except there was one marked difference. The entire castle was green and looked like it was made of plant substance. In fact, the castle itself looked like a giant tree, with its spirals resembling branches. The full moon overhead gave the building a mystical aura.
The ground shook behind them as the Giant pounded it.
Max looked behind him. The candy walls were shaking.
Another forest lay in front of them. It was teeming with Green Gremlins, who were darting back and forth.
"I think we should fly," said Max.
"I'm on it, sire," said Eddie, who began transforming into a dragon again. "Hop on!"
Eddie transformed into a dragon, so Max and Ariel both hopped on.
"It might be a bumpy ride, my lord prince, so please hold on," said Eddie.
Max held onto the dragon's ears, while Ariel sat in the prince's lap.
Eddie's wings flapped rapidly and then they slowly rose into the air.
The Giant burst forth, snarling and grunting and groaning. He took a swipe at the group, but they were now out of his reach.
Max looked down at the Giant and shouted, "Go to the afterlife!"
The Giant grunted in response.
As Eddie began to fly over the forest, Green Gremlins began zooming up towards them.
Max raised his Glove of Vulcan and shouted, "Flamma!"
Green Gremlins were incinerated left and right.
But after only a few minutes in the air, Eddie's wings began to tire. Max felt his friend's flying start to wobble. He was no longer flying in a straight line, but zig-zagging through the air.
Soon, the wings slowed down its flapping.
Their altitude plunged.
Max gripped onto Eddie's ears tightly. "Uh, Eddie. Are you OK?"
"Just...just...kinda...kinda....tired, my...my lord," hufffed Eddie, who sounded out of breath.
"Then set us down in that field down there," said Max., pointing below.
But Eddie was too exhausted to land safely.
His wings stopped flapping entirely.
Like a rock dropped from a bridge, the group began to plummet through the air.
Max's heart beat so hard it threatened to explode.
Eddie shouted, "Sssssssooooooorrrrrryyyyyyy!"
They were going to fall to their deaths. Max desperately tried to think of what to do, but could come up with nothing.
Panic and fear gripped him.
No, he thought to himself. We will not die like this. We will not!
Suddenly, his mind turned into a very zen-like state. It was like he was meditating as he free-fell through the cold air.
And then something both freaky and wonderful happened.
Max felt himself getting lighter and lighter, as though he were floating on air, as though he were air. It was like he was having an out-of-body experience.
He stopped falling.
Floating in the air, he looked at the ground with amazing clarity. Ungal was gone. The Green Gremlins had mostly been subdued. The three of them had already flown past the forest.
Max grabbed Eddie and Ariel, who both appeared shocked as they stared at Max.
The three of the hovered in the air in suspended animation, as though they were in a stasis field.
Max liked this feeling. He felt so free and liberated, as though anything was possible.
They were close to the ground, so Max zoomed downward, setting everyone safely in a tall grassy field.
"What happened?" asked Max.
"I got tired, sire," said Eddie. "I'm so sorry."
"No, I meant with me."
Ariel chimed in, "I think you've inherited your mother's wind abilities. You can fly like the wind."
And with that, Max began darting and zooming from one end of the field to another, almost as rapidly as the speed of light. He felt so free when he flew, the same feeling he got when he was riding on his griffin Damien.
Max remembered that the archbishop had said that he had inherited his fire god father's fire manipulation abilities, but the archbishop didn't know whether the powers from his mother, who had been a wind spirit, would manifest through his genes.
And now, Max knew. He was happy that he had this latent ability to fly, but he still had questions.
When he felt himself tiring, he stopped flying and returned to the group.
"Why did my power choose now to manifest?" asked Max.
"Maybe it realized that you needed it most," said Ariel. "Now, let's go. We don't have much time left. Remember: for every minute that passes, the Queen is growing stronger."
Eddie let out a painful moan.
Max looked at his friend. "Who's wrong?"
"Just my shoulder," said Eddie, rubbing his shoulder. "I hit it when the Giant threw me against the wall."
Ariel rolled around in an adorable way on the grass, enjoying it much as a cat would. "You know, Max. You can use your fire abilities to heal."
Max glanced at his Glove of Vulcan. "I can? How?"
"Just as fire can destroy, it can also heal. Just point the Glove at Eddie and say, 'Sano.'"
Max pointed the glove at Eddie and said, "Sano!"
A small amount of fire transferred from the Glove to Eddie's shoulder.
Edde's eyes widened. "Hey. I feel a lot better now. Thanks!"
Max was amazed that he was still discovering things about himself in the Supernatural World. He wondered what other powers he possessed that he didn't know about.
"Now that everyone's OK, we can go." Max inspected his new environment. "So where are we now?"
"Some kind of field," said Ariel.
Just then, Max noticed something.
He could hear a woman singing.
The woman sounded familiar to him. It was as though he had known her before. No, it was as though she had sung to him before.
"Do you guys hear that?" said Max.
"What? Hear what?" said Eddie and Ariel in unison.
"That music. That song. A woman's singing," said Max.
There it was again.
It was the most beautiful song he had ever heard, much more beautiful than the song the two gluttonous spirits had played on their harps. The song sounded like a soothing lullaby.
"Come on," said Max. "This way! Follow me!"
For a moment, the thought that he was heading into a trap crossed his mind, but he was so overwhelmed with joy that he banished the notion. There was something very attractive about the song. It summoned him, called to him. In his heart, he felt it was not evil, but good.
The song grew louder.
Max was getting closer.
He waded through the tall grass until he came to a small clearing.
And what he saw there stunned him to his very core.
A woman was standing in the clearing. Wearing a single crown, she had wide happy eyes and dark flowing hair. She was smiling, a tad mischievously.
Max immediately knew who this woman was. He could recognize those huge ears of hers anywhere. They were the same ones he had.
He felt an immediate bond with her.
"Mom," he said tentatively, taking one step forward.
"Yes, honey. It's me. Your mother." His mother had a high, feminine voice, very pleasing to Max's ears.
A smile burst onto her face. "You remember this song? I used to sing this to you in the crib back in the Imperial Palace."
A maelstrom of mixed emotions overwhelmed Max. He was both happy and sad and angry at the same time. He was happy that he was finally seeing his mother. He was sad that she was dead. He was angry because he felt abandoned by her.
All his life, he had wondered about his parents and it wasn't until a few days earlier when he saw their pictures for the first time. But to see his own mother in the flesh - he had never imagined that would ever happen.
"What are you doing here in Purgatorio?" he managed to croak out.
His voice was choked with emotion. He wasn't talking in his normal voice. He was surprised he was even able to speak.
"I knew you'd come here one day," said his mother. "I stayed behind just to see you. I just wanted to see my son. To see the kind of strong and handsome, just and fair, loving and compassionate young man I knew you would become."
Her voice had an echoing quality to it. It sounded divine, like the voice of an angel.
Max teared up.
She put a hand on Max's cheeks.
Her touch was so soft and gentle, exactly as he had imagined.
She smiled. "Don't cry, sweetie. I'm so proud of you. I'm glad you're being yourself. There are two reasons your father and I gave you the bracelet. Although we sent you away to protect you, we didn't want you to forget us. So it's a souvenir. The other reason is that we never wanted you to forget who you are. That's why we inscribed the words Be Yourself in Latin on you."
Max inspected the bracelet on his risk. He looked at it in a new light now. It was both a souvenir of his parents and a reminder always to be himself. Of course, it also warned him against danger, but since this was Purgatorio, danger was everywhere and it had been lit ever since he set foot in the Haunted Forest.
His mother paused and then said, "You are Maximilian Jusoy. You have to be yourself. Never forget that."
Max stood there, so touched he was unable to speak. He had so much to say to her. He wanted to tell her how glad he was to be back in the Supernatural World, his own home. He wanted to tell her how much he had learned in the past few days and how much he had grown. He wanted to tell her that he would soon be the new Emperor and, both to honor his parents' memories and for the sake of his people, he was going to be a good ruler.
He wanted to pour his heart out to her. He felt like a dam had been opened in his heart and all his emotions were now gushing out uncontrollably, like a mighty force of nature.
But when he opened his mouth, nothing came out.
Seeing him all tongue-tied, his mother said, "Your father has moved on to the afterlife, but he would have been just as proud as I am."
Max nodded.
Finally, he was able to speak. "Your wind ability just saved me."
"I'm so glad it did," she said, grinning.
Her hair blowing in the wind, she took a step backward. "And now, I've done what I stayed behind to do. Now, I must go...to join your father in the afterlife."
Her voice had a light airy quality to it.
"No," cried Max, taking a step forward. "Don't leave so soon. We have so much catching up to do."
He had been searching for his parents for so many years. Now that he had found one of them, he wasn't about to let her go.
"Be yourself, my dear," his mother said, fast fading away. A bright aura surrounded her. "That's the key to victory. And then everything will be alright."
His mother soon disappeared in a flash of bright light.
Max stood there in the silence, deep in thought.
Emotions still overwhelmed him.
He wanted so much to be able to spend more time with his mother. Although grateful that he did see her, he had had so little time with her. But still, he cherished every single minute.
Soon, Ariel and Eddie joined the young prince.
"I just saw my mother," Max whispered, more to himself than to his traveling companions.
The two remained quiet.
Max was now in a contemplative mood.
His mother. So beautiful. So nurturing. So maternal.
As he thought about her smile, he felt better. He felt recharged, as though he could face anything and triumph. It was as though his mother had known that he needed a pick-me-up. She was his oasis in the arid thirsty desert.
He stared at the Queen's Castle just ahead.
When he first arrived, he felt that he had had such a monstrously impossible task in front of him that he could never succeed.
But now, after seeing his mother, he knew that he could. He could do anything. He could climb any mountain and part any ocean.
He was Max Jusoy, for the love of God!
And like his mother had said, the key to victory was to be himself.
I can do this, he thought to himself. I can do this. I will be myself.
Ariel hopped back onto his shoulders. "Yet another way your uniqueness has helped you."
"What?" said Max, still lost in thought.
"If it weren't for your big ears, you never would have heard that song," said the cat. "Eddie and I both have normal-sized ears and neither of us heard it. I think your big ears enabled you to hear that music."
Max smiled.
Yes, he thought. I'm not a freak. I'm unique and special. These traits that the kids at school made fun of me for are actually helping me here.
"You're right," he said, snapping out of his contemplative mood. "Let's do this. That way to the castle!"

***

The group of three arrived in front of a broken bridge that led directly to the main entrance of the castle. There was no way to cross the bridge except to fly.
Max announced, "I'm going to fly us across."
He imagined himself as light as the wind, but nothing happened.
"You have to recharge," said Ariel. "And that could take a while. Every power here in the Supernatural World gets exhausted and needs time to re-fuel."
Eddie said, "So what do we do then?"
Max scanned the horizon.
There was only one other way across. It was taking the long way around, making a circle around the castle and winding up at the back door.
"Then we go that way," said Max.
So the three of them walked slowly around the castle.
Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.
Endless wailing could be heard in the near distance.
Although apprehensive, they finally reached the back door.
Max exchanged glances with his traveling companions.
This is it, he said to himself. This is what I've come for. This will make or break me.
He grabbed the doorknob. There was some kind of liquid on it. It looked like tree sap to Max.
Frowning, Max wiped the liquid on his shirt and then opened the door.
He did it just in the nick of time, because the vines and roots from the top of the castle began to creep near the group.
One vine grabbed Eddie, who let out a yelp as he dangled upside down.
The sound attracted Max's attention.
He turned around, raised his Glove and cried, "Flamma!"
 The fire singed the vine, which dropped Eddie.
The dragon spirit landed on the ground with a thud.
Before the roots and vines could recuperate, Max hurried the group into the castle and then hastily slammed the door shut.
"You OK?" he asked Eddie.
Eddie nodded.
Flushed with adrenaline, Max turned his attention to the task at hand. He examined the castle. He didn't really know what to expect.
It was dark and quiet inside. Hallways led to different parts of the castle.
Eddie asked, "Which day do we go?"
Max had no idea so he randomly chose right. He figured he would wander around until he found the Queen. Either way, he was determined to find her and make her submit to his authority.
The three of them walked down a long hallway. Portraits of past rulers of Purgatorio lined both walls. There were one of a snake, a bat, a cow, several old men, one little girl and even a candlestick. All of them were in regal clothing and wearing crowns. And then, at least, Max saw the portrait of the current Queen. She looked stubborn and proudly independent in her flowing royal robes.
Max glanced at it and then looked away.
She looked dauntingly formidable.
No matter what, I'll succeed, he vowed. I've already come this far. I will go farther.
As he walked on, he reached into his pocket and felt a piece of paper rustling around. He took it out. It was the note from Jessica.
He opened up the crumpled note and read it again.

I had to leave before recess because I have a dentist appointment, but I'll see you tomorrow and we'll continue our drawing lessons. Keep drawing, Max. You're really good and you'll only get better the more you draw. Don't forget: one day, we're going to live in Paris and visit the Louvre and go to art school together.
- Jessica

After re-reading it, he felt a sudden pang of nostalgia. He really missed Jessica and their recesses and lunchtimes at their Safe Spot. He wondered what she was doing right then. He had had the archbishop send her a note assuring her that he was alright, but he didn't feel that it had been enough. He wanted her to be sent to him. Maybe she could even be his imperial consort and they could both live happily ever after, as Emperor and Empress of Occultoria.
A loud moan shook Max from his thoughts.
The three of them stopped.
They had just walked past an open room and the noise seemed to have come from inside.
"What was that?" said Max.
"I don't know," said Ariel. "But you have to be careful. It could be a trap."
Max glanced inside the room.
A little blond boy of about six years old was lying on the floor, moaning as though he were in pain.
Looking at the boy, Max's compassionate side kicked in. He knew the little boy was in trouble and he wanted to help. Max had always been that kind of person and he knew it was important that he be compassionate. His mother affirmed it and so had his bracelet. He had to be himself and compassion was a large part of himself.
So, Max paused. "Hey there. Are you alright?"
The little boy was wearing a torn shirt and a baseball cap. "No. It hurts," he said, clutching his leg. "I was at home and now I'm here somehow."
Max assumed that the kid had breached the force field and wandered in from the Natural World. Purgatorio was a dangerous place. The little kid could easily be eaten by the numerous hungry spirits.
"Poor kid," said Max, able to empathize, because the little boy could have been him.
He stepped into the room and approached the boy.
"Where does it hurt?" Max asked.
The little boy pointed to his right leg. "Right here, mister. I can't get up. Can you help me up?"
"Come on," said Max. "Come with us and we'll get you out of here."
Intending to help the boy get on his feet, Max stepped closer to the boy.
The boy's eyes flashed a coal black.
That was when Max realized that something was wrong.
For one, his bracelet began glowing a very bright and blinding gold, much like the first time it glowed to warm him that the Green Gremlin was in the vending machine.
For another, Max's instinct kicked in.
The little boy was not as he seemed.
Max sensed that it had all been a trap.
The little boy's teeth grew as sharp as needles. Without warning, he grabbed Max's arm and then sunk his teeth into it.
Max let out a bloodcurdling howl of intense pain as he took a step backward.
Summoning all his strength, Max grabbed the kid's face and pried the kid's teeth out of his veins.
The prince glanced at the little boy. The little boy was no longer a little boy. He was now an old middle-aged man with a receding hairline.
There was a table of antique lamps behind him.
He grabbed some lamps and chucked them at the prince. "I want my money!"
Max raised his Glove of Vulcan. "Flamma!"
Huge powerful flames burst forth, incinerating the antiques.
The assailant slowly turned invisible, becoming nothing but a faint outline.
But Max was not fooled. He could still see the outline and knew exactly where to aim his Glove.
Meanwhile, Eddie had transformed into a dragon.
The two young men shot fire at the ghost at the same time.
Fire from both sources struck the spirit.
The spirit started to disappear as it screamed in anguish.
Soon, it faded away completely, its cries still echoing in the room.
Max stood there, his head caked with sweat.
Ariel and Eddie rushed up to Max.
Still in his dragon form, Eddie said, "My lord prince. Are you OK?"
The attack had happened so quickly that Max hadn't had time to think, just react.
Recovering his composure but still breathing hard, Max looked in a mirror.
It was there that he discovered something very strange and very disturbing.
His skin was turning a sickly purple.
Ariel gasped. "Max. You have been poisoned."