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Sebastian and Albert, the only two remaining members
of the Super Authors that had not yet be captured, raced down the jungle paths
of Mystery Island. They stopped briefly in the main town.
The town was falling apart. Huts and buildings
were burning. The villagers were in a frenzy. Running up and down the streets,
screaming for mercy, they bumped into each other out of sheer fright. "The volcano
ghoul is coming!" an island Acara screamed, running into the Tiki-Tack man's
hut, which was smoking slightly.
The Tiki-Tack man himself was dragging boxes
of cheap Island goods out of his shop, trying to save as many as he could possibly
handle. "Oh, dear... oh, dear... whatever shall I do without my rare and expensive
fish pop collection...?" he muttered loudly to himself.
Sebastian stifiled a laugh, but then Albert poked
him in the ribcage rather violently. He pointed to the town square.
In the middle of the commotion, the Island Mystic
had taken a seat, hovering over his crystal ball, his eyes wide.
"You! You're going to get sick from eating a
bad piece of pizza on Wednesday!" he yelled to a random Blumaroo, who didn't
even notice that he she was being spoken to, much less having her fortune told.
Sebastian looked at Albert. "You know, sometimes
I think fortune telling is a waste of time, but we are in a desperate situation,"
Albert muttered.
The two sauntered up to the Island Mystic. "Excuse
me, but will you read our fortunes?" Albert said, politely.
The Island Mystic looked to the left and right
of Sebastian and Albert, but did not acknowledge them. "Hey, BUDDY! Right here!"
Sebastian said loudly, waving a paw in front of the Mystic's face.
The Mystic looked severely put out at this gesture,
but nonetheless, looked at Albert, waving his paws over the crystal ball. "I
see... I see..." He looked down at the crystal ball, which was blank. "I see
death," he muttered.
Albert cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes!" shrieked the Island Mystic. "Death and
misfortune will come to those who, like you, shall be destined to stick a fork
in a toaster!"
Sebastian snorted loudly.
"You don't believe me?" hissed the Island Mystic.
"Very well - here is YOUR fortune!"
Sebastian turned to Albert. "Let me guess, death
by choking on a thumbtack?" he whispered under his breath.
Albert giggled.
"I see... I see it! This fine Lupe will live
for a long, long, time... longer than... erm... the beaches of the earth, and
he will become the... the... Minister... yes, the Minister of Meridell, and
have 12 children! And then he will die, quickly and suddenly, from choking...
on a THUMBTACK!"
Sebastian twitched violently. "12?" he muttered.
"Forget it," Albert whispered to Sebastian. "I
thought that this was a good idea, but I guess I thought wrong. Let's go."
As they left they heard a odd sort of noise.
They turned back around to face the Island Mystic. He was hovering over his
crystal ball, his eyes rolling and out of focus. The noise came again, and they
realized that it was the Island Mystic, hissing a warning.
"Midnight," he hissed. "At midnight in the depths
of the volcano, he shall meet his match. Mystery Island hangs by a thread. A
choice between fight or flight will be made. It will be stopped by the very
things it is created from. He shall meet his looming fate, and Mystery Island
shall be reborn under the words of a new history. It shall come to pass at midnight..."
The Island Mystic squeaked out the last few words,
and fell over in a crumpled heap. "Is he dead?" whispered Sebastian.
Albert went over to the Mystic, touching his
paw. "No, I think he's fallen asleep." A loud snore told Albert that his guess
was correct.
"C'mon, Albert, we have to go save Rosie and
the rest..."
Albert stood up, and the two took off for the
volcano. A loud grunt told them that the Mystic was awake again, and predicting
random nonsense as usual.
"You! The diet you seek will not work! You! ARE
YOU LISTENING TO ME?!" cried the voice of the Island Mystic as Sebastian and
Albert trudged out of the small town.
"What do you make of his prediction?" Sebastian
asked, running alongside the Chia.
"I don't know... I have a hypothesis... but...
I don't know," Albert panted.
They stopped at the entrance at the bottom of
the volcano, avoiding the traps hidden cleverly in the sand. The volcano was
rumbling and smoking violently. Albert and Sebastian pushed on the door to the
volcano, but it didn't budge.
"Stand back." Albert whipped out a large, shiny,
and lethal looking weapon from the Space Station that he had received from the
Tiki-Tack man as a gift. Putting on a pair of sunglasses, he pressed a small
red button, and suddenly, time stood still.
When Sebastian was able to open his eyes again,
there was a large smoking hole in the door of the volcano. Albert put the weapon
away, and pocketed the sunglasses. "That was fun," he admitted.
The two ran through the hole in the door, and
were greeted by a long empty corridor made out of stone, and dimly lit by torches.
There were doors on either side of the corridor, twisting and winding in every
direction. It was a maze.
"Oh, great," Sebastian mumbled. "I've never in
my life been able to finish a maze."
Albert sighed, and pulled out the note that had
been tacked on the door of the volcano that he had kept in his pocket. He headed
down the middle of the corridor. Sebastian followed him down the middle fork,
down the left fork, down the left fork again, the middle fork, the right fork,
the middle fork, the middle fork, the left fork, the middle fork, the left fork,
the left fork, and the middle fork again.
Albert finally stopped running. They had arrived
at a small door. A small sign was tacked up on the the door in the same handwriting
as the first note. "Good work, Albert," was all that it said.
"What's going on? How did you know where to go?"
whined Sebastian, clutching a stitch in his side.
Albert grinned. "Rosie's one smart Ixi. Those
detective novels sure paid off," he said. Albert handed Sebastian the note that
had been tacked on the door. The first letter of each sentence had been circled
with a red pen by Albert.
Sebastian read it carefully. "My Dear Remainders
of the Super Authors: Let me express my happiness that you could make it this
far! Most unfortunately, you're too late. Right when you reach this doorstep,
you will have only realized that Jay, the squabbling pet rock of yours, and
your dear Desert Ixi have all been kidnapped by yours truly.
"My intentions are far from evil, however! My
army and I shall kill my three kidnappees quickly and painlessly, except for
that stupid rock- his constant whining and blubbering annoy me terribly. Later,
after their untimely deaths, I shall uncover the legendary pencil of Mystery
Island and rewrite the history of the Isle, which will, in time, result in the
destruction of the island as we know it.
"My condolences if this puts a bit of a damper
on your day! Let me express thanks for your time and effort in your futile search.
Love, your mortal enemy.
"P.S. My condolences again for the young Aisha
named Harriet," he finished. He turned the note upside down and sideways, looking
for clues. "Still don't get it," he muttered after a while.
Albert sighed deeply. "Rosie wrote the letter
that was tacked outside of the volcano. It's her handwriting, you see. Each
of the sentences begins with a L, M, or R. Left, middle, or right. It's so simple,
yet so brilliant!"
"Wait. How did she get outside to post it on
the door?" Sebastian said, his eyebrow raised. "She's probably in a dungeon
or a jail or something..."
"Charlie made her write it. His writing is so
bad, you see, that he forced her to write it so he could sound like he had an
ounce of sense. He didn't count on her enclosing a secret message to us within
the note."
"Well, how did she know about Harriet?"
Albert rolled his eyes. "With the amount of sand
traps and Harriet's lack of intelligence, it was bound to happen."
Sebastian blinked. "I'll never doubt you again,
Albert."
Albert grinned, and pushed open the door. An
unlit room, blacker than night, lay inside. The two both shuddered involuntarily.
"Got a match or something, Sebastian?"
Sebastian fumbled around with his utility belt
and managed to find a dim lantern. It hardly made a difference, but Sebastian
held it out in the air bravely.
They walked down the slimy and dirty corridor,
only to be faced with a second door. It was covered in cobwebs and Spyders.
Only the door handle looked as if it had been used recently. It was covered
in dust except for several clean patches, where a paw had obviously touched
it to open the door. Sebastian shuddered as a Spyder raced across the handle.
Albert looked up at Sebastian, holding a finger
across his mouth to indicate silence. They both took out their weapons of choice,
holding them at the ready. Albert turned back to the door. He took a deep breath,
and swallowed his fear. Grasping the door handle, Albert pushed. With a low,
echoing creak, the door opened slowly to reveal...
To be continued...
Cliffhangers, cliffhangers, cliffhangers! What awaits Albert and Sebastian
in the final chapter? Will they stop the madness in time to save the lives of
Rosie, Harriet, Spot, and Jay? Will good prevail, or will evil endure? Will
Mystery Island be saved, or will the villagers fall to the fate of the rewritten
history? Not to mention Charlie! Find out in the pivotal final chapter of...
the Super Authors and the Chamber of Secrets!
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