I woke up in the morning to the sound of rustling.
I opened my eyes slowly and saw a shadowy figure standing next to me.
“Ahhhhhh!” I screamed, jumping out on the make-shift sleeping bag I had made with the two blankets. The person had a black hood pulled over it’s head and looked a lot like a Dementor.
I backed away and looked around. I hadn't really seen where Peter and I had traveled and I was completely shocked when I saw where we were.
We were sitting under a tall maple tree, its branches sticking out weirdly. Tall grass surrounded us but somehow didn't come any closer.
“Where am I?” I whispered to myself. The creature came towards me and I scrambled away.
“What do you want?” I asked it, crossing my arms. It drew back a little bit but then continued to move over to me.
“What?” I yelled, seizing a stick and running at it. The Dementor guy ran around the fireplace to escape my swinging weapon.
“Stop moving, you stalker!” I screamed.
Suddenly, he ran at me, grabbed Princess Talia’s locket, and took off.
“Wait!” I screamed, stuffing the ‘sleeping bag’ into my bag and picking up Peter's bag, “That's mine!”
I ran after the person. The tall grass made it hard to run but I didn't care. How dare he take that?! I was supposed to be protecting it!
The person’s black cape fluttered out behind him, floating above the grass and giving me something to track. We must have ran for ten minutes at least before I'd almost caught the creature.
Suddenly, the Dementor guy scrambled up a flight of stairs built into a tall maple. At the top of the tree was an orb like tree house. I dropped my bags and followed after it at running speed. The stairs were made of maple just like the tree. As I looked up to look at the thief, I saw that there was beautiful paintings of stars and planets painted inside the stairwell. There were torches lining the walls, casting shadows on the tree’s inner bark.
The stairs led to an empty room. The person had disappeared mysteriously and I was alone. I can tell you I was scared. The room was dark and didn’t have torches like the stair well. There were many star maps of the walls. I think it was an observatory.
“Hello?” I called out nervously. No one answered. A chill shot down my spine.
All of a sudden, someone grabbed my arm and held it behind my back. I screamed. The person slapped a hand over my mouth and started pulling me towards a door with a star carved on it. I tried kicking, hitting, and biting my capturer but nothing worked.
The person opened the door, dragged me down a few steps and shut the door. Once we were alone, the person let go of me.
I turned around and ran at the door, trying desperately to escape. The person grabbed my ankle and yanked me back down.
“What are you doing?” the person whispered, “You can't go back out there! You'll get caught!”
I turned around. A boy about my age was looking at me with narrowed, amber eyes. He had dark chestnut hair and wore a gray vest with a black shirt and brown pants. He held onto my ankle with one hand and a torch with the other which illuminated his face.
“Wh-why should I?” I said bravely, not removing my grip on the door handle.
“I spotted you last night,” said the boy, letting go of my ankle, “Where you were is the worst spot to camp. The CODE could find you! I mean they already did.”
The boy looked down at his lap. I started to turn the handle but stopped. Was this kid going to help me? Or was this a trick?
Suddenly I spotted Princess Talia’s locket laying on the floor next to the boy.
“You!” I screeched, leaping at the theft, “Give me my locket! NOW!”
The boy grabbed the locket, held up his hand, and shouted loudly, “STOP!”
I froze. Why was he stopping me?! He stole the locket!
“You stole my locket!” I screeched at him, pointing dramatically at him. The boy widened his eyes.
“What?” he said, “No no no! You misunderstand!”
“I understand plenty!” I shouted.
“No please!” cried the boy, “I can explained!”
I crossed my arms across my chest.
“Fine,” I said, “Explain!”
“My guardian and the rest of the APTE protects Princess Talia and her locket. This looked like the locket and I thought you had stolen it!” The boy finished with a dramatic sigh, “But apparently I was wrong.”
I nodded solemnly and said, “I wasn't stealing it. I was guarding it.”
The boy nodded. I held out my hand.
“Locket please,”
The boy placed the locket in my palm and pressed my fingers over it so I was gripping the cold metal tightly in my hand.
“So what’s your name anyway?” I asked the boy while I reattached the locket.
“Irwin,” he replied, smiling.
“I’m Annie,” I said, “So you said you were watching me. How much did you see?”
Irwin bit his lip and sigh. “I saw that the boy and girl got captured. But something wasn’t right. The monster was connected to the girl. It wasn’t behind her like you might have thought.”
I cocked my head. Was the monster really connected to Milly? Or was Irwin leading me into a trap?
But before I could open my mouth, there was a loud banging on the door.
“Open up!” thundered a voice on the other side, “Open up or we’ll bust the door down!”
“Hurry!” whisper-shouted Irwin, taking my hand and pulling me over to the back of the room, “Follow me!”
He opened a small door, handed me the torch, and took off down the tunnel that the small door had revealed. I followed.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Irwin didn’t reply. I frowned and sat down where I was.
“What are you doing?” whispered Irwin frantically.
“Where are we going?” I asked again.
“I don’t time to explain! We need to move!”
“Where,” I said, “Are we going?”
“We don’t have time!” Irwin said grabbing my wrist and looking into my eyes, “It’s CODE whose after us!”
I bit my lip and stood up.
“Let’s go,” I said. The thing is I always want to know where we’re headed when we travel. I’m very stubborn when I don’t get my answer the first time, too.(As you might have noticed.)
“So,” I said as we traveled down the tunnel, “What does CODE stand for anyways?”
“Council Of the Deadly Enterprise,” said Irwin, without turning around.
I thought for a second. “How do you know that?”
Irwin bit his lip. “My family are part of the Council.”
I gasped and backed against the walls of the passage.
“I-I shouldn’t be following you,” I stuttered.
“Wait, Annie!” said Irwin, “It’s okay. I’m not like them.”
Just then, a shout came from behind us.
“There they are! It’s the girl and that little traitor! He’s helping her escape!”
“Run!” barked Irwin, grabbing my wrist and we took off down the passage. The CODE people followed at an alarming rate.
I could see a light at the end of the escape route. Irwin and I ran towards it.
Almost there! I thought, Just a few more steps!
Irwin and I burst out of the tunnel into the daylight. Unfortunately, the CODE people did too.
As I panicked like an idiot, Irwin pulled us into a giant flying machine that was a hot air balloon with a small house like thing inside a large basket. After spinning some strange looking dials, he took my hand tightly.
“Hold on,” said Irwin as the machine rose into the air, high above the CODE people. We were safe.