Secrets of the Space Necklace: Part Three

     Chloe sighed. The events of last Sunday were too confusing to her. What would happen tomorrow? Would they be able to translate the note? Chloe knew she had to talk to her siblings about it.

     When morning came, Chloe sprang out of bed and flew down the stairs. As soon as she entered the kitchen, she ran to her siblings and whispered, “We need to talk.”

     “About what,” Clara shouted. Chloe groaned. She then picked up Clara from her high chair and whispered, “It’s a secret.”

     “A secret,” Clara shouted back. Chloe groaned louder.

     Tina and Vincent then finished her breakfast, and the foursome walked back upstairs together. They knew Miss Van Sparkleton was waiting for them for their Sunday tea.

     After each pet was finished getting dressed, Vincent showed his sisters a book he had in his room.

     “I was reading this book last night before bed,” he explained, “and I found this picture.” He then flipped to the right page and his Chloe. “Seen this before?”

     Chloe gasped. It was the necklace they had found in the library! As Chloe read the picture’s caption, her suspicion started to grow. “According to this, the necklace is actually the Space Faerie’s Token!” Chloe said, her voice sounding very concerned. She couldn’t believe it. Why would Miss Van Sparkleton have a priceless artefact in her mansion? Did she steal it?

     “I think we should ask Miss Van Sparkleton why the token was in her library,” Vincent suggested.

     “But wouldn’t she be mad at us,” Tina pointed out. “Maybe we should decode the note inside and leave the token be.”

     “But we can’t just do that,” Chloe argued. “If we do, then the token will still be with her! Maybe she is a thief.”

     “Well, I guess we can figure our plan out along the way,” Vincent said. He then went back to the room and came out with a blue book in his left paw. “This book can help us decode the secret code on that note,” he explained. “If we can distract Miss Van Sparkleton, then maybe we can find out what the note says.”

     Chloe and Tina nodded. Clara was confused, but nodded anyways. As the foursome left their house and walk to Miss Van Sparkleton’s mansion, Chloe started to feel a shiver go down her spine. Would their plan work? Would Miss Van Sparkleton find out what they were up to?

     When they approached the mansion, they found Miss Van Sparkleton waving at them.

     “Hello, darlings,” she called out. “I would like to personally thank you all for returning once again. Now, shall we have tea? I decided an inside tea will be much more pleasant this time.”

     The foursome nodded as they entered the mansion. Chloe knew Miss Van Sparkleton was admiring her pink gown, which was the same gown she wore last week. The four siblings were wearing the same outfits from last week, since none of them had thought to change their clothes for this week. There were much more important things they should worry about than how they dressed.

     “Petit four,” Miss Van Sparkleton asked as she seated Clara and Chloe.

     Vincent had asked if he could explore the library, to which Miss Van Sparkleton agreed. Tina didn’t care about asking, so she just followed Vincent into the library.

     “I guess those two must really love to read,” Miss Van Sparkleton said with a giggle. Chloe giggled as well. She was glad their host didn’t know what they were up to.

     As she sipped her tea, Chloe tried hard to ask one of the very puzzling questions she had for Miss Van Sparkleton. But her thoughts were then interrupted when Miss Van Sparkle tuned to Chloe and asked her, “So, how’s your mother?”

     “My mother,” Chloe wondered. Why was she asking such an odd question? “Our mother is quite good, actually,” Chloe replied as she purposely stuffed three petit fours into her mouth. She knew it was impolite to talk while eating food. And she was on her best behaviour as well.

     “So, what has she been up to?” Miss Van Sparkleton asked. “Has she been on any adventures lately?”

     Chloe shook her head quickly. She didn’t know, or care, what her mother was up to at all. So why would Miss Van Sparkleton care?

     “Our mommy’s the best!” Clara cheered. “She makes cakes, plays games with us and took us to see the Blue Kacheek Group last week!”

     How fun, Chloe thought as she remembered the concert. As soon as the Group had appeared, Chloe had closed her eyes and fallen asleep. When she'd woken up from her long nap, the concert was ending.

     “Someone was snoring during the whole show,” Clara said as she nudged Chloe. Clara then started to laugh. Chloe groaned, but then remembered what her other siblings were up to.

     “May I be excused?” Chloe asked. Miss Van Sparkleton nodded.

     “Just be sure to come back,” she said. Chloe nodded. She then slowly made her way to the library, hoping her siblings had cracked the code by now.

***

     “I think that thing is a G,” Tina argued, “not a Q!”

     Vincent groaned. He then saw Chloe enter the library and smiled, as if she was some kind of miracle.

     “So, did you find out anything?” Chloe asked. Vincent nodded as he handed a scrap piece of paper to Chloe. On it was a part of the note they managed to decode:

     Help! Danger in

     “That’s it?” Chloe asked. She sounded very disappointed. “You spent the whole tea session decoding, and you only decoded this much?”

     “Don’t blame us,” Tina argued. “We were doing great until we found this symbol.” She then showed Chloe the symbol. It was a square with a dot in the center of it. “There were thirty other symbols that matched this one,” she explained. “Vincent and I were arguing about what the letter is. He said it was a Q, and I said it was a G.”

     Chloe nodded. She figured out that her siblings were very frustrated.

     “This book is too hard to read!” Vincent declared. “You practically have to read it several times before you actually understand it.” He then asked Chloe how the tea had gone and Chloe told him and Tina what happened.

     “That’s odd,” Vincent said as he rubbed his chin with his paw. “Why would she ask questions about our mother?”

     “And why would she ask if our mother went on any adventures?” Tina asked. “I doubt a visit to the Food Shop is qualified as an ‘adventure’.”

     Chloe nodded in agreement with Tina. They all knew their mother didn’t go on any exciting adventures, besides going to concerts.

     “Well, should we go now?” Vincent asked as he pointed to the library’s window. “It’s raining harder now. I think that’s why Miss Van Sparkleton told us to have the tea inside. She must have known about the storm.”

     “At least everyone can get the Gloomy avatar today,” Tina giggled. She then stopped when she saw Chloe and Vincent staring at her.

     “We should get Clara now and just leave,” Chloe said as she made her way out the library.

     “One more thing,” Vincent said as he and Tina left the library. He then lowered his voice and said, “Remember when we thought the necklace we found here was the Space Faerie’s Token?” When Tina and Chloe nodded, Vincent said, “Well, it’s not the real token! You see, this token we found here is actually made out of plastic. I and Tina found that out when we accidentally dropped the necklace and it bounced on the floor.”

     “We also found out that the necklace wasn’t from Neopia Central,” Tina whispered to Chloe. “It appears to be made in some other land. We both agreed that it was probably made somewhere in space.”

     Chloe nodded as she checked on Clara and Miss Van Sparkleton. Clara was just finishing her tea when, zap! All the power in the mansion went off! Chloe, Tina and Vincent huddled together in the dark mansion.

     None of them moved, until Tina asked Vincent, “Did you remember to put the necklace back in that book?”

     “I thought you did,” Vincent hissed. Chloe couldn’t believe it. If Miss Van Sparkleton found the one book in her library, she would be on their tails in no time!

     “Ouch, stop stepping on my tail, Tina!” Vincent shouted.

     “Sorry,” Tina said as she got up and walked away from Vincent.

     “Is that you, darling?’ Miss Van Sparkleton replied back. “Did you enjoy the library?”

     “Yes,” Tina said, as she tried her best to make it towards the front door.

     “What about the note?” Chloe asked Vincent. “Did you at least put that back?”

     But before Vincent could answer, he heard a crash. Everyone was frightened. It sounded like glass breaking. And as everyone listened carefully, they could hear someone making their way towards the parlour.

To be continued...