Chapter 35
Ghostly Voices
"It's . . . trick . . . not . . . it . . ."
Lily's eyes flew open and she sat up. She had been awoken by a buzzing in her ear that sounded suspiciously like someone was whispering in it. But with a simple glance to the side, she confirmed that Viv was still asleep and tightly bundled up beneath her blanket, so it could not have been from her. A glance out the window told Lily that it was still nighttime.
She scratched her head. "A dream?" she wondered aloud.
"Beware . . . !"
Lily abruptly turned and cried out, "Who's there?"
It was faint, but there was no mistake that what Lily heard was someone talking. But the only answer she got was a soft groan from Viv. She shifted the pillow a little, but otherwise remained slumbering.
Carefully, Lily scanned the dark room with the only light shining in through the window from the full moon. But as far as she could see, there was no one else here. She strained her ears but heard the voice no more.
"Well, it's finally happened, Lily," she muttered to herself. "You've gone crazy."
Chalking the voice up to being just her imagination, Lily tried to go back to sleep. But it took longer than she'd like to actually conk out. That's why, when morning came, she showed up to class groggy and bearing circles around her eyes darker than a panda bear's.
"Uh . . . you okay, Lily?" asked Eddie. "You kind of look like my dad when he forgets his daily coffee."
Lily gave him a grumpy frown. "And what is that supposed to mean?"
"Lay off, Eddie," Viv told her brother off. "You'd be in a bad mood to if all you got to look forward to is a call from Dad for the scolding a lifetime."
"Gee Viv," said Lily, "I actually forgot about that. But thanks. Thanks for reminding me."
Viv flashed an sheepish smile. "Sorry."
The door flew open and in walked a black-haired man in a brown suit.
"Good morning, class," he said.
Everyone replied back, "Good morning, Headmaster."
The Headmaster of Bluestone Academy strolled over to the teacher's table and faced the crowd with a warm smile. He could easily tell what most of them were probably thinking. Many of the looks thrown back at him were of confusion and surprise.
"Many of you are probably wondering why I'm here instead of your usual history teacher, Mr. Lin," he said. "Rest assured, Mr. Lin is doing fine. He's just a bit under the weather. Just in case, he'll be taking the day off. Since no one else was free, I decided to take over his classes for today myself."
Lily exchanged looks with Viv and Eddie.
Uncle Viceroy's sick? That's really hard to believe, thought Lily.
Eddie raised his hand.
"Yes, Mr. Wallace?"
Eddie asked the headmaster, "Mr. Lin didn't say anything about giving anyone detention or banning them from things, did he?"
The Headmaster shook his head and replied, "No. Why do you ask? You didn't do anything to warrant such things from him, did you?"
"Nope," Eddie said quickly. "Not at all. Forget I asked."
Viv sighed and rolled her eyes.
The Headmaster, meanwhile, frowned at Eddie suspiciously, but said nothing further and moved on with the lesson, which was, for once, a normal one for this classroom. No weird cartoon drawings, no random instruments being played, and no dancing balloon men taking over the lecture. Instead, the teacher read from a slideshow being played on the big, white screen behind him.
"Today, we will be learning about Leonardo Da Vinci . . ."
As Lily was took notes, hissy whispering reached her right ear and turned. But there was no one sitting next to her there. She heard the whispering again, this time at her left and turned, asking Viv, "What is it?"
Viv looked up and went, "Huh? What?" Her fingers clutched her smartphone beneath the table.
"You didn't just say something?" Lily asked.
Viv shook her head and whispered back, "No."
"Then who - ?"
"You two in the back!"
The girls turned their heads to see the Headmaster frowning at them.
"Is now really a good time for some chitchat?" he asked them.
The girls meekly replied back, "No sir, sorry sir."
*********
"What was up with you back there?" Viv asked as they headed to the next classroom. They cut across the courtyard surrounded by a shower of red leaves. "You were acting a bit strange back there. Well, actually, you've been acting strange all morning, Lily."
So she noticed, Lily thought. I thought I had acted normal enough, but I guess I was wrong.
"Yeah," said Eddie. "It didn't look like you got much sleep last night. I mean, you looked terrible."
Lily threw him a dirty look and pulled back her sleeve. "Wanna find out what it's like to live as a chinchilla?"
The sapphire gems around her bracelet flashed a threatening shine.
"Did I say you looked terrible? I meant to say you looked great! So pretty! Like a princess!"
Eddie breathed a sigh of relief when Lily lowered her bracelet arm.
"Seriously though," Viv said while ignoring her brother, "what's the matter with you?"
Lily thought about telling her friends about the voices, but then hesitated. And then, looking away, she said, "It's nothing."
Viv was unconvinced. "Oh, come on Lily! It can't be nothing. You can tell us. We're friends, aren't we?"
It's because we're friends that I can't tell you, Lily thought. Even now, she could still vividly remember watching Viv and the others turn into stone statues and being too helpless to stop it. She did not want something like that to happen again.
"It's really nothing," she stubbornly insisted.
"Lily, if something's bothering you - "
"Look!" Lily snapped sharply. "Just drop it!"
The twins were stunned and taken aback by her outburst.
Lily quickly left them behind before they could recover. But instead of heading to the next classroom, she circled around to the back of a random building where she sat down on the ground and hugged her knees close to her chin.
There, she sat, just wanting to be alone with her thoughts. Sadly, she was not going to get her wish.
"Playing hooky now, are we?"
Lily looked up to see the blue parrot perched on a tree branch above her.
"It looked like something was bothering you," it said. "Are you sure you didn't want to talk about it with your friends?"
With a scowl, Lily fired back, "And get them hurt or worse like last time? No. I'm done getting my friends dragged into these messes where something bad could happen to them. I don't know why you've been making me hear weird, ghostly voices, but whatever it is you're planning now, I can handle it alone."
As if confused, the bird bent its head sideways and said questioningly, "Ghostly voices?"
"Don't play dumb!" Lily snapped. "Now that I've had time to calm down and think, I should've figured out right away you and the Schemer had something to do with that weird, soft whispering I've been hearing out of nowhere."
"Voices from out of nowhere, huh? Well, whatever," the parrot said. "I did not come here for idle chatter."
It dug its beak beneath its right wing and pulled out a small black square which it tossed down to Lily's feet.
After giving the square a suspicious look, Lily asked the parrot, "What's this? You back to stealing people's stuff? Is that what you wanted to tell me?"
But the parrot just cryptically replied, "Just take a look and you'll understand."
Wary of heinous traps, Lily rolled back her sleeve and silently gave her bracelet a command to protect her before gingerly reaching down for the square, which turned out to be a leather card wallet. Nothing happened when she touched it and the bracelet didn't flash lights or anything. But Lily remained cautious and slowly flipped the wallet open while holding it as far from her face as possible. When she peeked inside, she gasped.
In the wallet with details exposed by a sheet of see-through plastic was a picture name tag. Uncle Viceroy's picture name tag.
Lily tore her eyes away from the wallet and shouted, "Why do you have this?"
The parrot had its beak pointed up as it said, "Do I really need to spell it out to you, child?"
Color drained from Lily's face as her mind raced. No way. It can't be. There's no way the parrot and the Schemer could have gotten Uncle Viceroy. I saw for myself how strong he is.
As if it could read her mind, the parrot smirked. "No matter how powerful a being can be, there is always a way to beat them. Your uncle is no different."
"If you hurt him, so help me, I'll - !"
The parrot cut Lily off. "You need not worry. Viceroy Lin is unharmed, for now. But that can change, depending on you."
Lily fell quiet for a few seconds. And then . . .
"What do you want?"
She glared scathingly at the parrot, her hands clenched tight and trembling at her sides.
But the parrot simply gave Lily an apathetic stare and replied, "A challenge. Tomorrow at Four. Win, and you get your uncle back, safe and sound."
The ghostly voice returned, and it was screaming. Lily could tell it was screaming by the tone, but it was still too faint for her to make out what it could be trying to say to her. Something that rhymed with "Oh!" The rest was just buzzing like from a mosquito.
Lily was already on her last nerves and the ghostly buzzing just put her over the boiling point.
"Shut up!" she yelled. "Stop it already!"
Blue light suddenly shined from Lily's hair and an explosion of wind blew the parrot off the tree branch.
The parrot squawked, startled. But it quickly regained its bearings and landed on another branch in a huff.
"Blasted child!" it spat. "Just what is wrong with you today?"
"Look in a mirror!" Lily snapped back.
"Why, I never!"
The parrot shook its head furiously and then mumbled to itself, "Calm down, me. Let's just get this over and done with so we can all go home."
It took deep breaths and then ruffled its feathers from top to bottom.
"Ahem! Ahem! Anyway, you will find the Schemer at the place he first appeared. He will tell you what your challenge is once you meet him there. I trust you can find your way?"
"Don't worry," Lily said. "I know the place. And when I get there, I'm ending this for good!"
"I look forward to that," said the parrot. "Truly."
And then it turned tail and flew away, disappearing into the sky.
**********
Julius Bluestone was in his ever dark office with only sunlight from a single room for lighting, scrolling through a digital document on his computer when the window suddenly opened up on its own and in flew the blue parrot, sourly grumbling to itself as it landed on the school director's table.
"How did it go?" asked the old man.
The parrot curtly replied, "The challenge was delivered. She'll show as scheduled, that rude little brat."
"Well, you've certainly got your feathers ruffled. Did something happen?"
The parrot gave said its feathers a shake before answering. "Nothing you need to concern yourself with."
A short pause later -
"No, wait. Actually, there is something."
"Well, don't keep me in suspense," said Julius. "What is it?"
"The child claimed to hear ghost voices," said the parrot.
Julius raised his eyebrows. "Voices, you say?"
The parrot nodded. "She believed we were behind it and could not be convinced otherwise . . . Are we behind those ghost voices?"
"We are not," said Julius. He sank in his chair and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. But then his face lit up and pulled a crystal ball out from one of the side drawers. Light shined from the glass ball as he stared intently into it. A few seconds later, he started chuckling. The chuckle became a wheezing laugh. And then the wheezing laugh became a cackle. Finally, the cackle turned into a loud guffaw and the parrot watched with its beak hung open.
"Oh, heavens above," it said. "After two-hundred years, he's finally gone mad."
Julius stopped laughing and frowned at the bird in dismay. "I heard that."
"You were meant to," said the parrot. "Now, do you mind explaining to me what's so funny? What did the crystal ball tell you? What are those voices?"
"They're a sign," said Julius, eyes gleaming with giddiness. "The voices are a sign that the end we've sought is finally near."
The parrot's eyes grew wide. "You don't mean . . ."
Grinning from ear to ear, Julius nodded. "I do. Honestly, I've had doubts. But this confirms it. Oh, why did I have to choose tomorrow? I should've had her take the challenge today!"
He kicked the floor in frustration and made his chair do a full three-sixty degrees spin. And then he pressed the bridge of his nose against the crystal ball. Its blue light enhanced the mad excitement on his face. From the ball, he could hear the same whispering that Lily heard. He could clearly hear the words that Lily had missed and understood them all perfectly.
"Tomorrow can't come soon enough!"
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