Soon they entered the mansion door, which was so big that the limo itself could be driven inside. Spike pushed them out roughly and shoved them into a room. The room was absolutely empty, except a white sofa that was turned away from them. The walls, floor and ceiling were painted pure white. Rose kicked their knees and they kneeled down, facing the sofa. The sofa swiveled around on its own, revealing a mustached man wearing a white tuxedo. He smiled, showing his perfect white teeth. His sleek brown hair was parted to his right and shined.
“Un-gag them, merci.” He said with a heavy French accent. Rose ripped off their gags, which burned their mouths. The French Man smiled warmly at Amanda. He extended his arms, as if asking for a hug. Amanda did nothing, but simply said, “Hi dad.”
Chapter Seven - The relationship
Everyone in the room gasped including Anne.
“He’s your dad?” Anne exclaimed. Amada’s dad nodded as if it was a rhetorical question.
“Come, Amanda.” Amanda’s dad said warmly. “My, my, look how you’ve grown. I haven’t seen you since you were five! Come over here, and control the world with me!
“Join us and become the princesses of the world. You and your friend will have all the riches that you desire. You shall have millions of servants, wealth, and luxuries. Join us, and have everything you want. Join us.”
Amanda’s clenched her sweaty hands, and looked hesitant. As Anne wiggled nervously around, Amanda said looking straight into her father’s eyes, “I shall not join.”
“Well, well.” said Amanda’s dad with a sly smirk on his face. “Aren’t you being a little fresh with your generous father? Now off to your room to think about your option.” He pressed a black button and the girls fell down a trap door screaming for help.
“We have to get out!” Anne said franticly. They were in a poorly lit room that appeared to be all black “Don’t you even know your own house?”
“Depends on which one you’re talking about.” Amanda replied, scratching her head.
“Ahem,” boomed a voice from above. “Yes my microphone is working. Now, now I see that you have been trying to find an exit. You shall find one when you agree. Now do you agree to take over the world with me?”
“I will never agree and you know it.” Amanda shouted coldly to her dad.
“Maybe Sebbi could’ve help.” Anne whispered nudging Amanda, “Now all we have are a bunch of broken sticks.”
As Amanda looked at the sticks they appeared to be moving.
“Sebbi?” Amanda called hopefully. All she heard was a loud mew.
“Shush up, now! Do you want to be caught?” Anne cried out, startling Amanda and Sebbi.
“ You dare say that to me?” Amanda’s dad said thinking that command was for him. “Well, I think that you’ll need a lesson or two on manners!” As he said that, stink bombs dropped down from the ceiling.
“So…Stinky!” Anne managed to say as she held her nose.
Soon the smell died away.
“Hey Amanda.” Anne whispered. “Do you think that you can transfer Sebbi into a camouflaging blanket-ish thing? I think I have seen people do it.”
Amanda shook her head sadly. “That only for animals on level 20. Sebbi is only on level 16.”
“I have an idea,” suggested Anne. “Maybe somehow we can raise her to level 20.”
“I hate your ideas.” Said Amanda. “But magical animals levels go up when they are fed well and healthy.”
“Maybe we can feed her our coats and she may be able to rise,” said Anne.
“See why I hate your ideas? I would not think our coats are something that will make Sebbi well-fed!” argued Amanda.
“But our coats had been around the Crystal Pyramid!” Anne reasoned.
So Amada fed Sebbi her purple coat. From the coat Sebbi just ate, she rose to level 18.
“Meow!” Sebbi meowed.
“Here is my coat.” Said Anne. Her coat is blue with some purple embroidered flowers.
“Are you sure you’d want that jacket all chewed up?” Amanda asked uncertainly.
“Umm…Nah.” Anne said hesitantly. “She can eat my sweater instead. My sweater was near the Crystal Pyramid that night too.”
“Her level is rising!” Amanda cried out joyfully as Sebbi devoured Anne’s pink fluffy sweater. Sebbi now had pure white wings even without turning into a wand.
“What level is Sebbi now?” Anne asked excitedly as Sebbi licked her hands.
“I am thinking she is at level 21, thanks to your sweater. Gee, why is your sweater stronger than my coat?” Amanda asked curiously.
“That is my personal secret. No need for you to investigate.” Anne said as Amanda turned Sebbi into a diamond sword, which even a level 19 animals can do and cut out a hole in the wall.
“Now we can escape.” Amanda said relieved.
“But don’t we have to get the Crystal Pyramid?” said Anne. Amanda looked puzzled. “Sebbi said so,” Anne quickly added. “Yes, we do. For master Juliann Radcliffe” was Amanda’s reply for Anne.
“Do you think we can sneak past your dad’s security guards?” Anne inquired. At this question, Amanda turned silent. From the silence, Anne knew that Amanda wasn’t sure, at all.
Chapter Eight - Escape route
As Amanda cut the wall to little bits, Anne wondered how they were going to sneak out of this house full of security guards and surveillance. Amanda crawled out of the dark room and gasped. In front of her stood about twenty-two security guards and her dad holding a gun.
“You don’t want to run away from your marvelous dad, do you?”
“Yeah, I do.” Amanda muttered.
“Mmm… What was that?” Her dad asked. Amanda suddenly screamed and jumped out of the way just as her dad pulled the lever and a bullet whizzed past her head. “Crud!” Amanda’s dad cursed. “In 20 years I’ve never missed a shot. Agh…”
“Amanda! Are you alright out there?” Anne called softly.
“If you call almost getting shot in the head by your dad alright, yup.” Amanda replied.
“O…AGH!!!” Anne screamed. “Get off of-mph!”
“Anne! You okay?” Amanda asked, looking over. But Anne had disappeared. So had Amanda’s dad and all the guards. Amanda ducked into the black room and groped around calling for Anne.
She reached for a flashlight and shone it across the room. When she confirmed that Anne wasn’t in the black room, she covered herself with the long camouflaging Sebbi blanket and headed to the red room to find Anne.
Chapter Nine - The red room
As Amanda rushed hurriedly to the red room, she almost stepped on a red mousetrap. The whole floor was covered with a sea of mousetraps. She thought, the only way I can pass is by flying on Sebbi. But when she looked up, all she saw were countless mousetraps and bells hanging from the ceiling. There was one giant bell in the middle of the room. Why the bells? Thought Amanda curiously, she quickly found out why. In the corner, about thirty maids wearing red dresses slept on red beanbag chairs.
Suddenly, Amanda heard a tiny squeak from the corner. She saw a mouse poke its head out of a hole and eyed the cheese on a mousetrap hungrily. It licked its chops and pounced on the food. Little did it know, another thing was hungry – for blood. A razor sharp blade loomed over him, ready to attack. With the slightest tension on the cheese, the blade snapped into action. The blade sliced the mouse cleanly into two. The poor innocent thing barely had enough time to squeak a farewell to his family before his spine broke and he died. Amanda gasped in horror.
A small fuzzy head peered out of the mouse hole. The mouse wept and tears rolled down its cheeks. One of the tears rolled into the mousetrap, and the razor sliced promptly sliced it in two, but will not snap again unless the maids set it again. The other tear rolled into the center of a bell, but the bell did not make a sound. This gave Amanda a spark of inspiration.
She reached into her poc
ket and fished out her pink-laced handkerchief. She transformed Sebbi into a pair of scissors and cut the handkerchief into tiny pieces. First, she dropped a piece onto a mousetrap in front of her and it snapped onto the handkerchief. It was now safe to touch. She cautiously stepped onto the mousetrap, and her toes did not fall off. She sighed in relief.
But then something caught her eye. A group of mice were gathering around the dead mouse, mourning and weeping for it. Amanda quickly spotted an untouched piece of cheese near a mousetrap that was already snapped. She felt bad for the mice, so she took the cheese and broke it into pieces. Then, she put the cheese near the mice. She made sure the cheese was not so close that it would seem like she wanted to bait them into eating the cheese.
A weeping mouse turned around and saw the cheese. He quickly spotted Amanda. The mouse had to be young because he went back and squeaked to mice that looked like his parents. His parent squeaked something that had to be “do not trust the human” because the little mouse went back in the hole and didn’t come back out.
Just then, an elderly mouse came and carefully approached the cheese. He came and smelled the cheese. Then he took a tiny bit of a chunk and nibbled it, while glaring at Amanda as if saying, “This better not be poisoned.” Finally he seemed satisfied, and rushed back to bring the family of mice to the cheese. Amanda was relieved that they trusted her.
Carefully, she snapped another mousetrap and gave the family the cheese. She did this until she reached the other side. Amanda turned back and waved to the family of mice, who had befriended her. But as she did this, her brown hair brushed against a small bell that was unnoticed by Amanda. One tiny bell connected with the other bells started to ring through the string until the sound has reached the giant bell that dominated the room. Now Amanda knew why the maids had installed a giant bell. All the small bells stopped ringing after a short period of time, but the big bell would not quit ringing, its deep, resonating sound was loud enough to wake up a snoring elephant, and Amanda was surprised that the maids didn’t pop up from their bean bag beds at once when the bell started getting deafening.
Amanda even dared to hope the maids wouldn’t wake up. And surprisingly they didn’t until one of them jumped up and yelled, “Who’s there?” And started firing a pistol hidden in the maid’s hair. The pistol was louder than the huge bell and it knocked into the other small bells. The other maids woke up and did the same.
Trying to dodge 30 bullets shooting around randomly is no easy thing. Amanda had to make sure Sebbi was covering her. She also needed to stay away from the mousetraps, which were spread out all over the floor. Amanda did not want to lose any of her toes. Amanda ran to a sofa in the corner of the room and squeezed behind it. She did not notice that her foot was sticking out. Luckily the mice noticed. They squeaked rapidly, and shrilly. As the maids turned their attention and guns to them, the old mouse that sampled Amanda’s cheese, stared at Amanda’s foot. Amanda realized her foot was sticking out and pulled it in. The maids saw the snapped mousetraps and set them again. They decided it was a false alarm and went back to sleep. Amanda mouthed a Thank You and quietly slipped out of the room.
Chapter Ten - A torture
As Anne wriggled and screamed, no sound came out of the box she was shut in. Amanda’s dad, who said his name was Dan, laughed at her reaction. “This is your penalty for running away.” Inside the box was stuffy and humid. Although it was the middle of winter and she only had her long-sleeved shirt on, she was sweating. She clenched her fists in anger.
“You will regret this!” Anne shouted taking no notice of the soundproof box surrounding her. Dan laughed and said very sweetly in a fake voice, ”Speak louder, honey, I can’t hear.” Everyone laughed even though it wasn’t funny.
Anne screamed so loud that the soundproof box couldn’t hold in all the sound.
Suddenly, they heard a “DING DONG DING DING DONG!” There was someone at the door. Dan rushed into the white room muttering, “Can’t these people come at a decent time. They come right when I’m busy… UGH!!!!!!!”
It was his second wife. “Who’s screaming? Please tell whoever it is to be quiet. I had a very stressful day…My make up artist ran out of my special toenail polish, and they pulled out one of my beautiful strand of hair, and they wasted my special lipstick by putting it on with the wrong outfit, and, and, and, OHHHHH!!!!” The wife ended up sobbing. “And now my beautiful makeup’s all ruined!” she wailed. Dan rushed over to comfort her, “Now, now…” he patted her back, and they went out of the room and into the blue room with Dan saying, “Now, now, now, now, now…”
Chapter Eleven - The stalker
Amanda crept along the walls of the yellow room. She had a weird feeling that someone was watching her, but she ignored it. She kept going. She ran with the camouflaging blanket flying behind her. Suddenly, she heard an ear-piercing scream that sounded like a fire alarm. “INTRUDER!” she heard. She quickly turned around, and to her horror, saw a stalker who had been stalking her. Before she could gasp, the stalker blindfolded her and pulled her roughly somewhere. When her blindfold was taken off, she found herself in a metal box, with a code pad at the corner. If only she knew the code. She kicked and screamed, pounding the box, trying to make a hole. Instead of a hole, she stubbed her toe. Suddenly, she heard knocks on the wall to her right. Short, long. Pause. Long, Long. Pause. Short, long. Pause. Long, short. Pause. Long, short, short. Pause. Short, long. That’s the Morse code for her name! Then she heard (in Morse code), “This is Anne, is it you Amanda?”
“Yes, it is.”
“OK, Amanda, there is a code here but it needs two people to get it to work.”
“OK”
“What does it say in the right hand corner of your box?”
“NOTHING… r u sure u know what’s going on?”
“Just look around, try to find something that looks like graffiti.”
“Um…Anne?”
“Yeah?”
“Did u forget that we are strapped to the bottom of the box?”
“So? Are ur eyeballs strapped too?”
“No, but I can’t exactly look to the side of my head.”
“Then don’t. Just look forward.”
“OK”
“Whadya see?”
“Anne! I see a bunch of green scribbles.”
“Good.”
“Now what?”
“Do u still have the grid Ms.Nomrah gave u?”
“Yeah…”
“Put it on top of the scribbles so that it covers it completely, and tell me the coordinates, like a connect-the-dots game. Except it’s a game of life and death. No pressure intended.”
Amanda did what she was told.
“A-6, B-6, A-4, B-4. F-6, E-6, E-5, F-5, F-4, E-4. B-2, A-2, A-1, B-1, B-0, A-0. F-2, E-2, E-1, F-1, F-0, A-0. J-2, I-2, I-1, J-1, J-0, I-0. M-0, M-1, N-1, N-0, N-1, O-1, O-0”
Long Pause…
“Anne?”
“Yes?”
“Hurry up!”
“OK.”
After a while.
“Amanda! I figured it out! It says ‘Open Sesame’!”
Soon she heard a cranking sound on her left.
“It works, Amanda! It works! You have to bang it in Morse code along the walls!” Amanda was soon out when she then heard a faint noise, “Who is it that’s responsible for this noise? I’ve had a very stressful day. I need some rest.” Dan’s wife whined entering the room. “Oh, who are you?” She asked examining Amanda. Amanda froze.
Chapter Twelve - The Find
Anne looked at Amanda, nudged her with her elbow, and whispered out of the corner of her mouth, “Watch and learn.” She walked right up to the lady, and shined her big baby blue eyes at her. “I’m sorry for bothering you, pretty lady. But we’re just orphans who have wandered into this GINORMOUS house and we need to find our way out. But before we go, we need to get our poor jackets to shelter us from cold weather and we can
’t find it…” Amanda slapped her head. That story was SOOOOO cheesy.
The wife took one long look at Anne, blinked once, and said, “Oh, I’m so sorry, Sweetheart. The exit is right over there! And Dan usually keeps his findings in the purple room. It’s his favorite color after all. Now if you will excuse me…” she walked back to her bedroom. Amanda stared at Anne surprisingly. Anne winked.
Amanda and Anne snuck up into the purple room and crept into it. They knew that they’d find the Crystal Pyramid here! But there, right in front of them, sat DAN! He heard the door creak, and looked up. The two girls, stifled their screams, slammed the door, and ran away as fast as their legs could carry them. Luckily for Amanda, she won the girls hundred-meter dash four times in a row. She basically dragged Anne away. “Guards!” Dan yelled.
“Yes sir?”
“Two people just came into my room, and then slammed the door!”
“Oh, don’t worry sir. It’s just a common prank, similar to ding-dong-dash.”
“Oh.”
Just then, the wife came in. Dan waved his hand and the guard backed out of the room. The wife walked next to Dan and informed, “Just a minute before, I met two ADORABLE little orphans. They told me that they were looking for their jackets. They should be coming soon. I’ll wait for them with you.” Dan said, “Yes. I seem to recall finding two jackets.” They sat there staring at the door.
Chapter Thirteen - Finding Sebbi
Amanda ran into a closet and whispered, “We need a plan!” Anne said urgently, “We have to find Sebbi!”
“No duh.” Amanda replied.
“Geez… WAIT!”
“What? What?”
“Isn’t that Sebbi’s paw prints?” Anne said, squinting.
When all magical animals are adopted, they are all dipped into special ink so that their guardians can always find them. The special ink can only be seen by M.P.O.C. agents.