House Of Nightmares

Chapter Six: Anthropophobia

Inside I had been expecting a fancy room like the meeting room in Star Wars, but instead, it was a conference room. Almost exactly. There was a bowl of taffy in the middle of the table, chairs all around the rectangular surface, and really, the only exception was the fact that there were no windows- just shelves with various kinds of succulents so it looked like a millenial lived there.

That and the people sitting around the table.

Zyta was one of them, her blond hair perfect as ever. So was Oban, who if you don't remember, was the old guy who is afraid of eternity. There was also a middle-aged man who had his eyes closed and didn't appear to want to open them anytime soon, an old woman who looked like she hadn't bathed in ages, a woman with a ridiculous sunhat, and a young woman with long cornrows and dark skin, wearing black robes. They all looked surprised at out entrance- well, except for the man with his eyes closed, because he couldn't really see us.

The woman in the black stood up, and I recognized her as the woman Alex had been talking about before- the leader of the Council, Deneira. 

Her eyes were white and empty- absolutely terrifying to look at.

She looked confused as to why two fourteen year olds had walked into her Council room, another having been dragged and was still thrashing and saying some not-very-nice words about Kanan. She attempted a smile. "Kanan? Er... Alex, I believe that's you, and... you must be our new recruit, what was it... Emily?"

"Edelie, but close enough," I corrected, still a bit weirded out by the people in the room. "Um... Kanan said that I needed to get your permission for something?"

Kanan released Alex, who fell to the ground with a thump, quickly stood up, about to insult Kanan again, then realized he was in the Council room. His face went as red as his hair, and he stammered a nervous, "um... hi."

Kanan started talking with no pauses in between, gesturing a lot as she spoke. "So little miss Edelie here had a dream in which she saw her friend Kendra, who had been taken home with a bad case of the throwing up blood, as a captive of Amaru, Amaru said she had a week to get there so I suggest we start now who's ready to give us permission to go?" Kanan shot finger guns at Deneira, which I don't think aided our situation anymore. Deneira's face was confused as ever, just maybe a bit more weirded out.

Zyta stood up. "Miss Deneira, I apologize for the intruders, I can send them back to their quarters and we can get on with the meeting-"

"No, no," Deneira said calmly, waving Zyta off. "Let's hear what the newbies have to say, shall we? I'm sure if they're storming in, unannounced, into a very important Council meeting, they must have something of equal importance to tell us."

Condescending? Yup. Accusing? Yup. 

Overall the most annoying human ever? Yup.

"Miss Deneira, I need to ask your permission to leave the House Of Nightmares for a very important... um... quest." Did I take that word from Percy Jackson? No. Maybe. Probably. Yes.

The Council murmured among themselves, before Oban stood up and said in a voice more miserable than Kanan's, "Tell us the purpose of your quest and we'll... sigh... consider it."

I shifted nervously. I didn't think I would need to explain this to anyone. "DOES THE WORD 'IMPORTANT' MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?" I thought inside my head. Out loud, I described my dream.

When I reached the part about the key to the House of Nightmares, all the Council members started shaking their heads. "Absolutely not," the old woman who looked like she had never taken a bath said, alarmed. "That would mean giving up all the Mystics over to the Bane! DO you want genocide? Because giving Amaru the key would mean exactly that."