Splinterbark: Chaos of the Coyote Crew

Chapter 13: Breakheart

Lynn grumbled at her alarm clock. Though normally a morning person unlike her stepbrother, her body felt like liquid as she flopping out of bed and pulled voluminous strands of her red hair from her mouth. She was not used to using that much magic at any given time. All those movies that made magic look as easy as flicking a stick and chanting some words as many times as you please could go to hades, was the foremost thought in her mind at the moment. Magic required a lot of self-fortification, energy, and sometimes sacrifice. There was always one common rule no matter your path. Magic always had a price. Once to her feet she dragged herself over to her stepbrother's door and knocked loudly. Any normal day she would hear him grousing to go away and then she would keep knocking until he was annoyed enough to throw open the door and yell at her that he got the message. When she knocked this morning there was no answer. She pressed her ear against the door and knocked again. Again no response. She called his name. Nothing. She only just now recalled he had fallen down stairs yesterday.

A grip of worry took ahold on her mind. What if he was lying in bed half dead or something? Alucard often locked his door especially at night. She pointed her finger at the keyhole and inhaled before muttering a small incantation. Lynn heard the tumblers click and give way and the door slowly creeped open. As Lynn went inside the room felt rather cold. Sure it was expensive to heat up the castle, but it should not have been this chilly. Her stepbrother's bed had not been slept in and the balcony windows were wide open. Fearing the worst Lynn ran over to the outside stage and looked around. She sighed with relief that there was no sign of a dead body from where she could see.

Did Alucard leave the house when he was clearly grounded? No, he practically did everything his mother had him do and as tense as it could be sometimes-he respected his stepfather. Respect him enough to not pull something this stupid. Lynn did not have enough time to think about that now. She heard the heavy footfalls of her father race up the stairs and him screaming Alucard's name. He nearly barreled his daughter over when Lynn had moved over to the doorway when she heard him. Desmond's eyes were wide with panic as he searched the room. Irene was close behind him. When she saw the vacant room, her covered her mouth and started sobbing. Uneasily Lynn asked what was wrong. In Desmond's hand was a sheet of paper. He reluctantly showed it to her. The letters had been cut out and the sheet was roughly crumpled from her father's massive hands.

Desmond Dougal,

If you want to see your son again, have 2 million dollars ready at 3pm today. Instructions to follow

****

"Does that make any sense to you?" Reed showed the paper to Thomas as they walked towards homeroom. Thomas shook his head. If you wanted to know anything historical about Cadric City-he was your plum haired guy, but this was out of his league.

"Funny, Shelly showed me another paper just like this one earlier this morning."

"Oh she did, did she?" Reed scoffed.

"For crying out loud, Reed. Are you two are still mad at each other?"

"Well she's being stupidly reckless and getting in my way."

"And you have a bit of a temper problem."

"I do not! I just..." The first waring bell rang. Shelly was almost in the room and was preoccupied with her copy of the riddle. She warmly greeted Thomas and coldly acknowledged Reed. Lynn was a few feet behind him. Next to her were three girls and one guy comforting her and talking in low voices. Shelly recognized two of them from the Magic Club booth, but the third and the guy were new to her. Even from the distance her eyes were clearly red from crying and she was shaking from panic. Thomas excused himself and walked over to the group. Reed and Shelly could not hear what he was saying or what they said to him, but Lynn was talking calmly to him. Thomas gripped her shoulder and even hugged her, much to the girls' surprise. Surprisingly, the guy didn't react. They did exchange a few more words before Thomas joined back with Reed and Shelly.