The Adventures of Trina: The Glass Key: Part Three

      "Have you seen Trina?” the green Usul asked.

      “No, why?” the purple Shoyru asked.

      Cassie frowned. “She didn’t show up for class today. Is she sick?”

      “Can’t be—she was fine yesterday. More than fine, actually. I’ve never seen her so happy, not since…” she dropped to a whisper, “well, when we joined the pirates.”

      “Hey guys!” Tomaru greeted. “Seen Evrilin around, by chance?”

      “Uh no, not at all…we’ve just been wondering where Trina might be.”

      “So wait a sec…” Tomaru said, confused. “You guys haven’t seen Trina or Evrilin, and you don’t know where neither of them might be…?”

      “Oh snap!” Pat exclaimed, hands on her mouth. “I’ll fly home and check on her! If I’m not back in fifteen, get out of the school!”

      “Alright,” Cassie nodded anxiously. “Check every place you can think of, without getting caught. I’ll try the library. Maybe she’s there ‘studying’ with that Liz…”

      “Tomaru, you know what to do,” Linny nudged.

      “Affirmative!” he said. He pointed to a square stitched to the underside of his sweater, no doubt where his wand and a vial or two were hidden.

      But while Tomaru mumbled “I always wanted to say that” among other less-flattering things, Cassie paid no attention to his squealing voice. No humor could drench the volcano of fear building up inside of her, melting on all of her thoughts until only one burned into her skin, until only two words erupted from her throat.

      Find Trina.

      Pat returned after ten minutes, but with bad news.

      “Leaving school grounds without permission isn’t something you want on your record,” their science teacher, Mr. Aardo said as he stood in their path.

      “Sorry, but we’ve got an emergency!” Tomaru said quickly. He marched forward, but the Kyrii moved in front of him.

      “All of you?”

      They nodded.

      “Yeah, it’s about our friend,” Linny explained. “She’s missing!”

      “Hmm…you mean that Wocky named Trina? I could’ve sworn I spotted her pacing the hallways not too long ago…”

      “Really?” Cassie snapped, ears perking upward. “Where?”

      “Come with me,” he gestured. “I’ll show you where she went.”

      Silently, Mr. Aardo led them down a hallway, and then down a few more. Soon none of these hallways were familiar. Most of the rooms belonged to the upperclassmen.

      “Ah, here we are…”

      They had reached an end of an empty hallway where only a door, plastered with toxic waste stickers and warning signs, remained.

      “You sure about this?” Linny asked with a raised eyebrow.

      “This looks like a janitor’s closet,” Pat added before jiggling the doorknob. It refused to budge.

      “Close, this is our lab supply closet. Trina probably thought she could study for today’s test in here.”

      Mr. Aardo slipped a golden key in the keyhole and held the door open. “After you…”

      Once inside the dark room, Mr. Aardo closed the door behind them, and with a click, they were locked in.

      A lit match made the room rather spooky. Flasks, beakers, and all sorts of wires and tubes glowed orange, and against the blackness of the room, it felt like Halloween had arrived a month early.

      He walked the flame over to a candle beside a vat of clear liquid. With the additional light, Cassie could see that the half-filled vat was unlabeled, unlike everything else in the room. That was definitely strange, but not as much as Mr. Aardo dangling his golden key between two fingers an inch above the vat.

      “Brace yourselves,” he warned, adjusting his spectacles as he spoke. His glasses flashed wickedly.

      They heard the key tap the bottom of the glass, and it was the last sound that reached them before they found themselves being pulled to the floor. It was as if gravity had multiplied by factors of ten. For a brief second they couldn’t move, they couldn’t see anything beyond a tiny flame against a black background.

      Then it stopped. Somehow, they were in a different room.

      The place reeked of musk and mold, worse than the dirtiest rooms back on the pirate ship. The ceiling was burned, save for the tiny, dimly lit lantern loosely attached in the center. Ashes were kicked into the air as they fought to stand up.

      “I apologize about the smell,” Mr. Aardo said, avoiding their eyes while he patted soot off his undersized trench coat. “This is the failed experiment room. Or was, back when there was a room. Oh look, broke my glasses again.”

      He tossed his spectacles behind him and revealed a new pair in another pocket.

      Pat yanked the collar of his coat toward her before he could unfold his specs. “Where in Neopia are we?” she said threateningly as he returned a dazed look.

      “That’s confidential at the moment, but what I can tell you is you’re not in neoschool anymore…” he said, calm. “Just be patient and you’ll find out everything you need to know. My superiors should be on their way here right about now…”

      “That’s it, I’m out of here,” Pat spat and made for the door, until a frantic Mr. Aardo blocked her path.

      “Now, now. I said to be patient. Believe me; you do NOT want to defy orders. You have a Wocky to find, don’t you?”

      “IT WAS YOU!” Pat accused.

      “Now, now. This isn’t the time to start pointing fingers! I know just as little as you do. Actually, probably less. That’s where you come in. Some tea and sandwiches and then together we can fill in the blanks—”

      “Our lips are sealed!” the green Chia snapped.

      Cassie stepped up to him. “You won’t get away with this. The school, our familes—they’ll know we’re missing.”

      “Not according to these permission slips.” The Kyrii shoved his hand into his pocket, which was packed with crumbled papers, and revealed four neatly folded squares between two fingers. “You’re on a field trip. An extended one, in fact.”

      He tried to stuff the papers back in his jacket when they had fallen to the floor. Tomaru snatched one up, shredded it, and then resorted to stomping on what was left of it.

      “If it bothers you that much, you can request some stand-ins, but to be honest, I’d forget about it. They tend to be a little faulty…and attractive to Mallards for some reason. We haven’t figured out all the kinks yet…”

      “Let us go!” Linny cried. “Let us go or—we’ll tell!”

      “And how would you plan on doing such a thing? You haven’t a clue where you are, and as far as neoschool is concerned, you’re having a fine day at some camp. I implore you, please wait for the formalities and we’ll lead you on a grand tour. And besides, it’s not like teaching is my only day job. You can only experiment so much in a lab class…sigh…”

          “THAT’S IT! I’VE HAD IT!” Pat shouted. She forced her way around Mr. Aardo, who was still rambling, and reached for the doorknob.

      Just then, with an earsplitting scream, the rusty doorknob clicked and a flash of white slipped inside. The visitor wasted no time; they immediately whisked out a wand and sent a steam of white light at the defenseless Shoyru.

      Luckily, Tomaru was faster, redirecting the attack to the ceiling.

      “Stay away from her,” Tomaru growled, planting his feet in front of Pat, who had her hands wrapped around her head. His arms were extended as far as they could go, wand in hand. Tiny sparks of red emitted from the tip.

      “Drop your wand, boy!” demanded the White Kougra. She was merely inches taller than the Scorchio, yet the ferocity in her voice made him jump.

      “You first,” he said coldly.

      Cassie expected the Kougra to back away. Instead of taking Tomaru’s warning, she clearly saw it as a challenge. At once she relayed several disks of light at him. Tomaru was taken aback by her sudden movements and was thrown in the corner of the room. Swiftly, his attacker advanced, trapping him there, and fired another round. So calm and calculative, Cassie didn’t believe Tomaru stood a chance.

      In a split second, she was summoning yellow orbs at the Kougra’s back, who deflected them with a simple swipe of their silver wand.

      While Cassie was still in shock, Tomaru chugged a potion. The Kougra raised her arm and then Pat rammed into her, sending her tumbling. The Kougra’s wand clamored and clanged across the floor, exactly like dropping a metal rod on stone flooring. The moment the last drop trickled from the vial, Tomaru’s scratches faded away. Noticing this, the Kougra laughed.

      “A healing potion? Pfft, so elementary!”

      Tomaru grinned, and with a snap of his fingers, the room ignited in rainbow light. The Kougra slid all the way to the opposite wall. Her face was shielded by her arms, crossed to form an X, but Cassie was sure that she must have looked surprised.

      Suddenly, Cassie’s legs trembled, and a refreshing aroma trotted past her nose. She yawned as her body wilted, and the sounds became slow and inaudible. The floor was filthy but the layer of ash was like a pillow as her head sunk deeper and deeper into the silence…

      Cold was the only word that came to her.

      Cassie awoke to find herself in a metal chair. A few more blinks and she was in yet another dimly lit room, this one resembling a metal box. She turned to discover that her neck was sore from resting her head on a metal table, however long she’d been asleep. No one else was in the room. Where were the others?

      There was a lot less rust on the walls this time. In fact, they were almost spotless save for a pair of long claw-marks running adjacent to the door frame. She hoped she’d never have to find out for herself where they came from, but soon footsteps were approaching.

      The green Kyrii known as Mr. Aardo now paced the floor. A set of files were in his arms. Had he known about her and Trina all this time? For once his quirky fashion sense and wild hair came off as intimidating.

      “Cassie Lewis…is this your name?”

      Her lips moved, but she couldn’t find the effort to speak.

      “No need to be shy. It’s just us here, promise.”

      “Look, I know you’re frightened,” he said in her ear, “and nothing’s making sense for you right now. But please consider hearing us out. It may not look like it right now, but we’re on your side. But we can’t make a move until we know exactly where your friend Trinandra is right now. You see, we believe she’s in terrible danger. Our duty is to protect her. We are her greatest chance.”

      “Our records indicate that this Trinandra Willicks was involved in an incident, something far bigger than herself. She has not done anything wrong—no, quite the opposite—but the information she might recall could help save lives…more than you can imagine. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

      Cassie shook her head and averted her eyes to the floor.

      “A magical artifact known as Alhasutek’s Staff.”

      She gasped.

      “Its existence is beyond legend…and these files say you’ve witnessed it firsthand. Very few have lived to tell about it, as a matter of fact. Trust me, Cassie…you can save your friend. It’s out of my jurisdiction, but I can cover for you…only a week. With our elite team at the helm you can pursue her.”

      “And then what? You’re going to lock her up? Like you’ve done to me, my friends?”

      “No, no. We’ll send people to protect her. And I’ll assure you, your friends are safe and sound. They’re undergoing questioning—just standard procedure.”

      “Then why treat me like a criminal?”

      “You’re our guests. Don’t let our no-fun atmosphere fool you. We’re just seeking information, that’s all. I can’t stress enough how important details are to us. In trying times, fate resides on how well we handle the details, the parts everyone else miss, whether it is some faded rune or a missing footprint, a misprinted stamp or blue moon. That’s our job here.”

      “What happens if I say ‘no’? Are you gonna keep me here?”

      He inhaled a long breath.

      “No, you will go right back to school and attend your next class like nothing happened. Then you’ll go home, freshen up, and everything will be fine again, until the next day. Your grades will start slipping from your lack of attention because you won’t be able to take your eyes off of that empty seat in the room, that door that could open at any second. Your tests will be blank because you have no answers. People will ask you for the time and you will have no answers because you stopped watching those dreadful seconds ticking away. You can no longer attend class while others laugh and smile like nothing happened.”

      The Kyrii had clearly lost his composure. His hair was more unkempt than ever and his eyes were budging.

      “You can’t sleep. Night after night, you’ll guess, you’ll ponder, and you will wonder, and retrace your steps but it’s all water under the bridge. You would’ve done NOTHING! Because all you’ll know is NOTHING!”

      Cassie was taken aback at the Kyrii’s outburst. “You…speak from experience?”

      He took a deep breath before speaking, “Afraid so. I had a family once, but they didn’t agree with my pursuit of science—and the experiments I had to perform. I haven’t seen my daughter in I don’t know how long. Point is, do something while you still can.”

      “Then you start by telling me, who are you, really?” she snapped. “And where are my friends?”

      “I am the same Frankie Aardo you thought you knew. What you see today is another side of me. The side of me tainted by loss and hopelessness…many years of this job will do that to you. Your friends, by the way, are undergoing questioning—just standard procedure. Thankfully they’ve been very cooperative—”

      “Lies!” the Usul cried, now on her feet. “All lies! They’d NEVER trust you! We can never trust anyone again! Not after—Not after he took her! He’s evil! Just pure evil!”

      “Who did?” he asked with concern.

      “Evrilin Shinski!” she managed to roar over a gargle of sobs.

      “That name…doesn’t ring a bell…” he said solemnly. “But I’ll do what I can. Can you give me a description of the suspect?”

      Like vomit, the anger once bottled up inside all spilled out. In tears she recounted Trina’s discovery of the Staff and how she later met a Mynci with ulterior motives, who eventually infiltrated the neoschool under an alias. She had left the tale of the Islands out, only keeping minor details. But the worst fact remained.

      She was alone.

      Cold and alone.

      To be continued…