Lily Wong Ch. 15

Chapter 15

The Maze

Eddie sat curled up against the wall at a dark corner of a narrow tunnel with his face buried into his knees.

After his tiff with his sister, he had stormed out of the dining hall and went straight to X by the gym. No surprise, he found Mr. Lin loitering there like a dutiful guard hound. Eddie was prepared to wait all night if he had to for a chance to investigate the spot that the history teacher stood on. But luckily for him, he didn't have to.

Almost as soon as Eddie arrived, Mr. Lin got a phone call. Eddie couldn't hear what was being said, but it looked like the caller was summoning Mr. Lin for a meeting. 

"I'll be right there," he promised to the caller. After hanging up the phone, he put it back in his pocket and walked away.

Eddie couldn't believe his luck as he watched Mr. Lin disappear into the darkness of night. When he was sure that the teacher would not come back, he stepped out from behind the corner and walked right into the spotlight shining from the wall-mounted lamp. No sooner that he did, a magic circle appeared and he found himself in that hallway of dark, rough stone, illuminated by flames dancing in bowls attached to the walls.

"Yes!" he cheered softly. After a victorious fist pump, he started exploring in the hopes of finding more clues about his missing mother. But the only thing he found at the end of the hallway was a blue crystal ball that looked exactly like the one he had seen at the Sapphire Society's workshop. It was held in what looked like lizard claws stretching out from the floor. There was nothing else.

Eddie gave the crystal ball a poke or two, but was met with disappointment when nothing happened.

"It must only work with Lily's bracelet," he guessed.

Realizing that he was wasting his time, he turned to leave, only to find out, to his utter horror, that the way he came was another dead end. There was no magic circle to zap him back outside or a doorway out of the hall. It was just one narrow, rectangle room reminiscent of a giant coffin. In other words, he was trapped with no other choice but to wait for someone to come rescue him.

When he heard someone call out to him, after many long hours, he slowly lifted his head and then sprang to his feet when he saw two familiar girls running towards him.

"Lily! Viv!" he cried out. "You came to rescue me!"

"No duh, you idiot!" Viv snapped. "Do you have any idea how worried you made us?" 

With a sheepish smile, Eddie said, "Sorry! Sorry!"

But that only made Viv scowl and doubt he meant it.

"Anyway," Lily cut in, "now that we got Eddie, let's bounce. If we leave now, we might make it before class ends and make up some excuse why we're late, like missing the bell because we were so engrossed in a really, really interesting book."

Disappointed, Eddie said, "Aw, but you guys just got here! Now that you're here, don't you think now's a good chance to check the place out like we always planned?"

Viv glowered at her brother. "You do realize we're risking our butts getting expelled for you, right? Do you really feel sorry about that?"

"I do! I do!" Eddie said quickly. "I'm really, really sorry about that!"

Viv still gave him a doubtful look, but then turned away and told Lily, "Come on. Let's get out of here already."

But when they got back the the starting point, nothing happened. When Lily stretched her hand out and commanded the bracelet to send everyone home, there was a flash of light and a piece of paper appeared with words written in big, bold capital letters that read: "IMPOSSIBLE".

"What do you mean, impossible?" Lily cried out in dismay.

The bracelet responded by conjuring another piece of paper that said, "Impossible, an adjective: something that cannot happen, be done, or exist."

"That is NOT what I meant!" Lily snapped.

"Well, CONGRATULATIONS, Eddie!" Viv said, her tone spilling with sarcasm. "Guess you got what you wanted, after all."

Eddie said nothing, having no way to argue back.

To make up for getting the girls in this mess, he led them back down to the wall they found him while explaining what he found there. The girls were so focused on Eddie earlier that they didn't see the crystal ball sitting at the corner until he pointed it out to them.

It really was exactly like the one they found at the Sapphire Society's workshop, Lily thought while staring at it. But the lizard claw was new. It looked like it was made out of blue metal.

"If this thing's anything like the crystal ball at the workshop," Lily muttered, "then . . ."

She placed her hand on the crystal ball. At first, it felt cold to the touch. But when she gave her bracelet the command to inject magic energy into it, the crystal ball became very warm as it gave off a bright glow.

The whole room rumbled. Lily could feel the floor shake beneath her feet as a section of the wall sank down to expose another hallway past it.

"It's working, Lily!" Eddie cried out excitedly. "It's working! Keep it up!"

Free of vicious, flying book monsters, Lily had an easier time feeding magic to the crystal ball than last time. But it was still pretty draining and she was left feeling dizzy when the doorway completely opened. 

"You okay?" Viv asked, concerned after seeing her friend falter.

"Yeah," Lily replied back. She shook herself awake and straightened up. "I'm good. Let's get going."

She led the way down the next hall which stretched down into a three-way fork. 

"I was afraid of this," Lily muttered quietly to herself. She had a sinking suspicion for a while that she and the gang may have entered a maze. Maze-like dungeons were a staple of fantasy adventures. Even Lily, who didn't play a lot of video games, knew that.

After staring at the three paths for what seemed like forever, Eddie broke silence and asked, "So, uh, which way do we go?"

"I'm thinking," snapped Lily.

She looked long and hard, but as far as she could see, except for which way they led, all three pathways looked the same. Same rough stone walls, same dark floor, lit by the same fire-bearing bowls. Not even the layer of dust on the floor could be used as a hint.

"Maybe the bracelet can help?" Viv suggested. "Why don't you ask it to show us the way?"

"That's a good idea," said Lily. "But show the way where?"

At that moment, even though she didn't ask for anything yet, the bracelet's jewels shined a ray of blue light down the left hallway.

Lily, Viv and Eddie stared at the bracelet and then looked down the left which looked like it stretched all the way into infinite.

"I guess there," said Viv.

Just to be clear, Lily wasn't thinking of anything in particular when her bracelet started glowing, so she had no idea where the light was actually leading to. She hoped it led to the exit, but something told Lily that getting out of this place was not going to be easy.

Boy did she wish she was wrong.

The path they took eventually led to another fork with two path choices. Lily and the gang went right, following the light shining from the blue bracelet.

After a few more twists and turns, Lily and the gang found a doorway which led to a wide, but empty, chamber. A couple of feet ahead of the doorway, the floor sank down several feet.

"Doesn't that look like an empty swimming pool to anyone?" asked Eddie.

"It does, actually," said Lily as she took a peek down over the edge. Because there weren't any lights in the chamber, she could only see black darkness below making it look as if there was no bottom. A chill ran down her spine just looking at it. If this really was a swimming pool, it was a pretty deep one. 

"Doesn't look like there's anyway around it," said Viv. "How're we - ?"

BANG!

Something loud crashed down behind the gang, startling them out of their skins. When Lily turned around, she saw that the doorway was gone. It had closed up. 

Before Lily and the Waller twins had time to even worry about being trapped, a new noise made them take their attention away from the door and back to the huge gap that reminded them of a swimming pool. It was a collection of loud sloshing noises, that instantly made Lily picture a waterfall.

But instead of water, what flowed out of the large valves lined up at the sides was glowing, hot magma.

"I take it back," said Eddie. "This isn't a swimming pool. It's a lava pit!"

<== Chapter 14

Lily Wong Ch. 14

Chapter 14

Skipping Class

It was an early and bright morning with the sun shining brilliantly into the classroom through the window panes. So much so that Lily felt that the ceiling lights were a waste of electricity as she looked around.

"Say, where's Eddie?" she asked.

She had searched the whole classroom but didn't find him anywhere.

Viv shrugged and said, "Maybe he's running late?"

"But isn't that his roommate over at the back corner?" Lily asked.

Viv craned her neck and spotted a round-faced, curly blond-haired boy sitting all in his lonesome at the elevated back of the room. It was Eddie's roommate, Sam. They locked eyes for a brief moment and then Sam turned away and looked down at his book.

Lily remarked, "He's not looking very chipper this morning."

"He must still drowsy," said Viv. "Probably didn't get enough sleep last night because of video games or something."

If Viv was right, Sam wasn't the only one extremely drowsy this morning. Ten minutes after the bell rang, the door swung open and in trudged Uncle Viceroy, hunchbacked. His eyes were bleary, squinty, and had dark bags under them. On normal days, he'd be singing greetings to his students while dancing to his table like a character from a Disney movie. Either that or come in playing a random instrument like the trombone. But instead, he just walked straight over to the closest student and handed him the stack of papers he had brought tucked underneath his armpit.

"Take one and pass it down," he mumbled to the boy.

It looked like he hadn't even shaved today.

After letting out a big yawn, he told all the students, "As soon as you get one, start reading. It's today's announcements."

As the paper stack went from one person to the next, slowly shrinking, Uncle Viceroy walked over to his own table, dragging his feet. He dropped down on his chair which made a loud squeak from the sudden strain of his weight, and then put a blindfold over his eyes. He hung his head back and immediately started snoring. Loudly.

Everyone all looked at him and then down at the paper in their hands. A short second later, chatter erupted and the students all started doing their own thing, whipping out their smartphones to text or play games, talking with their friends about the TV shows they watched last night, drawing artwork in their notebooks, and desperately trying to catch up on overdue homework. A few honor students followed Uncle Viceroy's instructions and read through the announcement on the paper handouts.

Lily, however, was still worried about Eddie's absence and debated whether or not to go speak to Sam. But before she could make a final decision, Sam stood up and reluctantly walked down to the teacher's table. In his hands was a paper handout which he placed at the edge of the history teacher's desk. Lily watched and felt an itch in her nose.

Sam moved as quietly as he could. But when he turned away, Lily unleashed a loud sneeze that echoed off the walls. Everyone heard her, including Uncle Viceroy who awoke with a snort.

Lily sank down sheepishly, feeling embarrassed. As her Uncle Viceroy reached up to pull off his blindfold, everyone else scrambled to hide their phones and game consoles, and tried to look like they were doing school stuff before it was too late. Sam, however, could not get back up to his seat in time and froze when he heard the history teacher call out to him.

"Samuel Tanner? What is this?"

Slowly, Sam turned around and meekly replied, "It's a handout, sir. An extra one."

Uncle Viceroy gave the boy a look through the lifted side of his blindfold, and said, "There's an extra one? I made enough for exactly everyone. Who's absent?"

He stood up, tossed aside the blindfold and looked around.

"Where's Edward Waller?"

No one said anything. But all eyes turned to Eddie's roommate, poor Sam who fidgeted under everyone's gazes. Lily felt empathy for Sam, knowing how he probably felt.

Uncle Viceroy gave the class a final glance and then called on Sam to speak privately in his office. They were inside for just about a minute before Sam came out and called out to Viv.

"Teach wants to talk to you," Sam said before returning to his seat.

Viv exchanged looks with Lily and then quickly went over to the room next to the chalkboard. 

When Viv returned a couple of seconds later, Lily asked, "What was that all about?"

Viv answered back with a question of her own. "Before I answer," she said, "how good do you think that Mr. Lin's at catching lies?"

"Enough to make me think he's psychic," replied Lily. "Why?"

And then the bell rang.

Viv threw Sam a look as he stood up and grabbed his bag, and then said, "I'll explain later."

During breaktime, the girls spotted Sam walking down the hallway and quickly called out to him.

"Hey, Sam!" Viv cried out.

Hearing Viv's voice, Sam turned around. But once he spotted the girls coming towards him, he abruptly turned and ran.

Lily was baffled. 

Viv, however, grumbled,  "Not surprised," and then took off running after the boy.

"Just what in the world is going on?" After mumbling that, Lily joined the chase.

A teacher saw them running past him as he walked out of a classroom and shouted, "Hey! No running in the halls!"

The students largely ignored him and disappeared at a corner. Lily and Viv followed Sam out of the building. He cut across the road and went around to the back of the next building into a narrow alley. But he soon realized he made a mistake when up ahead, he spotted a plastered wall.

Sam turned to run the other way, but Viv appeared, blocking his way.

Just as he was about to try and run past her, Viv snapped, "Don't even think about it."

When Lily showed up, that was when Sam knew that he could not escape.

Breathlessly, Lily asked, "Will someone . . . please tell me . . . why my sides hurt  . . . when it's not . . . even P.E. yet?"

"This guy told Mr. Lin that Eddie was out sick with a cold," Viv explained. "But when Mr. Lin asked if I knew about that, it was clear that the teach thought that Sam was lying. Mr. Lin would have no reason to double check with me otherwise. And that means there's another reason Eddie's a no-show. So out with it. What's my brother up to?"

"I don't know!" cried Sam. "I really don't! I haven't seen him since yesterday!"

Viv raised an eyebrow. "Haven't seen him since yesterday? You mean he never came back to the dorms? He was out all night past curfew?"

Sam responded with a frantic nod.

"Sam, if you didn't know anything, why did you run away from us?" asked Lily.

"I panicked, okay?" cried Sam. "When you two suddenly rushed at me, I freaked out."

"We did not rush at you," Viv argued in dismay. "All I did was call out to you."

"Viv, not now," Lily shushed at her roommate. "So Sam, when was the last time you actually saw Eddie? What was he like? Did he say anything?"

Sam thought for a bit and then replied, "I think it was around dinner time. I was grabbing a drink from the vending machine by the exit when I saw him running out. He looked a bit heated, but he didn't say anything."

"Do you know where he was headed?" asked Lily.

Sam shook his head and said, "Not exactly. But wherever it was, it looked like it was on the way to the gym."

Lily and Viv exchanged looks.

"Thanks, Sam," Lily said. "That's all we needed to know."

She and Viv walked away, leaving behind a bemused Sam.

"So, what do you think?" Lily asked as they briskly walked down the road. "Do you think Eddie went to X?"

"Oh, I KNOW he went to X," said Viv, "just like I know something definitely happened to him there."

Over their heads, bells rang signaling the end of break time.

When the shrill chorus ended, Viv declared, "I'm going to go check out X. You should head to next class, Lily."

"What? And leave you to deal with whatever got Eddie by yourself?" Lily put her hands to her hips and pouted in dismay. "No way. Besides, you said so yourself that me and the bracelet are the only ones that can get into X."

"Well, I thought so," said Viv. "But it looks like I was wrong since Eddie's missing."

"Look, Viv," Lily said, grabbing her roommate by her shoulders. "Let's be real here. Unless you spontaneously get magic powers, you're not going to be much help to anyone there, least of all Eddie. Let me help you."

Viv shrugged free of Lily's grip, frowned and said, "First of all, I do have magic powers. Second of all, I'm not waiting until Five in the afternoon. I don't care if that message was telling the truth and it's the best time to check out X. I need to go now. And that means skipping the rest of classes today. Are you sure you want to do that? We could get in trouble."

"Then we'll get in trouble together," said Lily.

Seeing Lily was not going to budge, Viv sighed.

"Fine," she said. "Then let's go."

The girls decided not to wait for Oliver. There was just no time to wait for him. But they did send him a text with a quick summary about what happened and what they were going to do before heading to the gym, careful not to draw attention to themselves. Once they arrived at the bread loaf-shaped building, they hid behind a wall to wait until the coast was clear.

Despite what she said to Viv, Lily's heart beat faster than a drummer beat his drums on Chinese New Years. Feeling restless, her eyes darted around, while she thought to herself, "I can't believe I'm doing this. I really can't believe I'm doing this!"

In some ways, skipping school in the middle of the day may be the craziest thing she's ever done. It was definitely a more rattling experience than all the other stuff she's done so far. If Lily had to say why, it'd be because there was a greater sense of danger than all the other times.

Soon the sounds of schoolkids headed to class died down and all was quiet except for the rustling of leaves against a gentle breeze. Lily dared to peek out but found not a soul outside. She and Viv were completely alone.

They seized the chance to go around to the other side of the building where X was marked on Mary Ann Duskbell's map. As they crept alongside the wall, Lily could hear the pitter-patter and squeaks of lots of shoes against the floor as kids inside the gym did their jogging rounds.

After reaching X, Lily looked around to make sure the coast was clear before pulling back her sleeve to expose the blue bracelet. Even under the building's shade, the bracelet's jewels brightly glittered and shined. A ray of light from the bracelet's top jewel hit the ground in front of Lily and a circle appeared with a familiar set of intricate patterns and artwork.

The light from the circle rapidly grew brighter and brighter. And then, when the light disappeared, Lily and Viv found themselves in a completely different place. Instead of outside by the gym building, they found themselves inside a narrow tunnel, surrounded by dark, rough stone blocks at all sides. Bright, orange flames danced in stone bowls sunk into the walls of the tunnel, serving as lamps to light the girls' way.

While looking around Viv wondered aloud, "Where are we?"

"I don't know," said Lily, "but it feels like we're underground. Hm? Is that . . . ?"

She peered ahead at the end of the hall which was out of the fiery lamps' reach. Despite being shrouded in darkness, Lily could make out a shape curled up against the wall.

Her eyes lit up and she cried out, "Viv, look! It's Eddie! We've found him!"

<== Chapter 13                                                                   Chapter 15 ==>