Chapter 12 Preparation
Sebastian left the coffee shop and peddled as fast as he dared through the commons desperate to get home, tired of putting off the inevitable. He barely noticed the stares of the shoppers, as he wove through the crowd, trying to get to the open road where he could break into a full sprint. His mind wondered through all the events that had happened so far: Makayla finding one of the trunks, the map, the box and its hieroglyphics, the fingerlike rays of light, the dream, and now Gina. He turned off Giles and bolted down a trail in the woods that he used to play on as a kid, one that took him right to the front gate of his home. He flew past the guard house not even looking at Marty, dropping his bike in the middle of the drive, charging through the front door. He stopped short, almost colliding into Scotty who was pretending to be Spiderman swinging through the house.
“Where's Makayla?” Sebastian demanded, putting his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Scotty gave him a curious look.
“I dunno. Hey, I'm attacking Venom. Wanna help?”
“Not now! Scotty, go find Julian and Ethan and meet me up in the attic.”
Huge brown eyes shot up at Sebastian. “You said no attic.”
“I know. Just go find them, OK?”
“K.” Scotty flew off toward the parlor, his fingers pointed, ready to shoot webs at anyone who threatened danger.
Sebastian went running through the house looking for Makayla. When he found her in her room, he shoved past the door and wrapped his fingers forcefully around her arms.
“Come on! We’re having a meeting in the attic,” he barked at her.
“Ow! Cut it out!' Makayla pulled her arm out of his grasp and shot daggers at him with her eyes. “What do you think you're doing barging into my room and grabbing me like that? Get out!”
Sebastian sighed, impatient with her. “I'm sorry. But we need to have a meeting right now. I want to talk about what's going on around here.” Sebastian turned his head to glance out her door, listening to the stomping feet going up the stairs. Makayla was still growling at him.
“I'm sorry! Just come on. I'll go get Mars and meet you in the attic.”
“Jerk,” she muttered under her breath as she brushed past him.
Sebastian ran down the hallway, toward the train room, where he knew he’d find Marshall.
“Marshall, we're having a meeting in the attic. Let's go!'
Marshall glanced up from his current layout, excitement shooting out of his face. “All right! It's about time.” Marshall nearly knocked Sebastian over, running past his brother toward the attic door. Sebastian followed him, taking deep breaths as he went, preparing himself to face the mysteries inside the trunk once more.
He tried to calm himself down as he slowly made his way up the stairs, knowing he’d just been a little ridiculous. When he reached the top, he glanced to the back of the attic and found five sets of eager eyes waiting for him to explain his sudden mood swing.
Sebastian walked over to them and stopped by the far window. He pulled his mouth into a tight line, trying to figure out how he was going to control these raw emotions that now threatened to boil over after many days of carefully pushing them deep, down inside.
“Sebastian, you don’t have to worry.” Marshall’s small, but confident voice was the first to break the awkward silence. He looked over at him, trying to contain himself.
“Worry?” Sebastian questioned a little louder than he meant. “Everything that’s happened since we got out of school has given me every reason to worry. I’m trying not to freak out!” His eyes were wild with fear, and his hands were shaking at his sides. The fury that he had so long suppressed, the reaction that he had so carefully calculated all his life was ready to break out of its box and never look back. For so long he had kept in check; kept himself in control for his family. The animal that wanted to show fear, remorse, anger, worry, sorrow, and even joy had been carefully locked inside of himself and Sebastian had meticulously hidden the key. Or so he thought. How could this happen? After being so careful to disappear among his friends, among his parents and amongst himself, could all this really be happening now? He wasn’t strong enough to handle this mess, especially since it was threatening the safety of his siblings.
Sebastian looked up from his moment of self-examination and found Makayla’s eyes. They were wide with curiosity, but her mouth was drawn in a long frown, letting him know she was still upset at his rude behavior. She met his eyes for a brief second but quickly looked away.
Sebastian turned his attention towards Marshall once more. “OK, Marshall, what are you trying to say?” He was trying to be careful, hoping not to lose control again. The animal would just have to wait once more.
“Well, don’t freak or anything, but we’ve actually been discussing the situation while you were gone.” Marshall stopped to check Sebastian’s reaction before continuing.
“OK, and what did you Sherlocks figure out?” Sebastian was trying not to glare at them.
“We decided to look at the facts.” Marshall glanced over to Ethan.
Ethan perked up. “Yeah, like the fact that some weird trunks just show up in our attic. And the fact that there is a box that lights up when you touch it.” Sebastian nearly growled at his bother for giving up too much information.
“Oh, get off your high horse, will ya?” Makayla defended her brother. “We already told them. We thought Marshall could help us put the clues together.” Makayla was challenging him with her eyes and stood up to get something out of her trunk.
She reached in, rummaged around the papers, pulling out the map they had found the first day.
“Look, we decided that this map is the biggest clue to figuring out what the heck that box is and does.” Just as she was handing the map over to Marshall to describe, Scotty reached into the trunk and grabbed hold of the box, throwing it into the air.
“No!” They all shouted together, lunging toward him all at the same time.
The box burst into light again and started spinning wildly out of control in midair. The fingerlike rays crept out of the grooves in the middle of the box, making their way across the attic floor in the direction of each trunk. Sebastian grabbed Scotty and Julian, pushing them behind himself, while Makayla, Ethan and Marshall held onto each other for dear life. Marshall let out a whimper when he realized that one of the lights was heading toward them. This was not how the lights reacted the other night, Sebastian thought. Why were they heading toward them and not the trunk that was several feet behind them? It was the only trunk that did not have a ray reaching toward it.
“Guys, don’t move. Try to stay very still,” Sebastian whispered as loud as he dared.
“Sebastian? What’s it doing?” Makayla asked breathless and full of fear.
Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t know. Just stay still.”
Nobody moved, or breathed for that matter. The finger of light just slowly crawled across Ethan’s lap as if sniffing out something that belonged to it. It wrapped around Ethan and then, dissatisfied, made its way to Makayla and searched her hands on her lap. Makayla let out a whimper of fear and finally the light left Makayla and slithered over to Marshall. The light reached the map and exploded with a blinding blue flash, like a flame reaching its kindling, and started dancing wildly around Marshall. The finger detached itself from the main body of light coming out of the box and shot like a dart toward the map, absorbing itself into the paper. Immediately, the box fell to the floor with a loud thud and the attic was back to its normal state.
“Well, that was unexpected,” Marshall said with eyes wide on the map. His hands were trembling, barely holding onto the slightly singed paper.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Makayla was patting his hands trying to reassure him.
“I’m fine. I’m not hurt at all. It’s just, well, it’s just…” Marshall choked on the words.
“Just what, Marshall?
” This time Julian spoke, peaking from behind Sebastian, eyes wide with curiosity on his older brother.
“Look! The map’s glowing.”
They all carefully gathered around him, looking down at the map on his lap. There were markers on the old paper that were glowing a bright blue, the same blue that had exploded out of the light before absorbing into the paper. Marshall twisted the map in the sunlight and the lights seemed to dance around, almost winking at them as the map rippled in Marshall's hands. The lights stayed on the identified landmarks, and they didn’t seem to be fading.
“I think it's trying to tell us where to go.” Marshall whispered the words so softly that he seemed to be talking to himself.
“What?” Ethan questioned, touching his finger lightly on one of the blue lights.
“I think this is its way of telling us where to go to find whatever it is we need to open the box.” Marshall looked up with wide eyes to Sebastian and handed him the map.
Sebastian grabbed the map and followed the blue lights and their course. “Impossible,” he mumbled.
“What?” Makayla jumped up and peered over his arms.
“It starts at our house.”
“Let me see that.” Ethan jumped up and grabbed the map out of Sebastian’s hands and held it up to the light. A second later, they heard him swallow loudly and saw a grimace come across his face.
“This is crazy! How can that be?”
“The light is talking to us. I know that sounds weird, but it’s talking to us.” They all spun around to find Julian, who usually didn’t have much to say, looking straight at them. He was sitting down on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees.
“It’s what I’ve been trying to say since we got up here.” This time it was Marshall who spoke. “The box wants us to follow the map to get the thing that will open it up. It wants to be opened.”
“Whoa, no way! Did you happen to see where this thing wants us to go? It ends in Boston. There is no way that we are going to sneak off to Boston to help this box open itself up.” Sebastian was having difficulty controlling the animal again.
“Why not?” Makayla stood up and put her hands on her hips. “I mean, why can’t we go to Boston? It’s not like our parents are here to stop us.”
“Will you listen to what you are suggesting? How are all six of us going to get to Boston without anyone noticing that we’re gone? Don’t you think the staff would notice, that Grandma and Grandpa Hanks would notice, or Alice? We can’t just take off for a couple of days, with no money, no way to get around and go searching in a city we don’t know, looking for who knows what. We don’t even know what it is that will open the box! And has anyone thought about what would be inside that box? I don’t know that I really want to find out!” Sebastian’s hands were gripped into fists at his sides and his face was wild with rage. No one spoke for a couple of minutes, all looking down full of apprehension from his outburst.
“Sebastian,” Makayla finally whispered, “do you think it will stop if we ignore it? Think about what has happened since we found it. I don’t think there will be peace until it’s opened.”
“I think she’s right.” Julian spoke into his knees, not really talking to anyone in particular.
“But I still don’t see how we would get there? How could we ever pull something like that off?” Sebastian asked, trying to make them see how impossible the situation really was.
Marshall looked at Sebastian with calm brown eyes and his face was full of confidence. “You'll lead us. We trust you to lead us.”
Sebastian just stared at his brother. No! He heard himself screaming inside. For the second time that day, the lady and the dream exploded into his mind. Flashes of the meadow, the castle, and the forest danced around inside him, until he couldn’t tell if he was in the dream or in the attic. The lady’s face swam across his eyes, and he found himself watching her in agony. He reached out his hands, letting the vision overtake him, and tried to help this most precious being once more. She called to him, shrieking his name with the piercing voice that shot daggers into his heart. Her eyes caught his, eyes so full of pain, full of sorrow, but full of the purest love possible. He knew then that this was beyond himself. This attic and its trunks were not for him, not for his brothers, not for Makayla. They were for her. Everything was for her. But then, peace overtook her and she looked at him with those piercing eyes full of love and her voice exploded into his heart. The lady spread her lips into a thin smile and said, “No, Sebastian. Not for me, but for the King and his people. Go!”
And just as fast as the vision had come upon him, just as fast as the light had gone back inside the box, just as fast as Gina’s eyes had gone to brown, it was over. Sebastian stood where he was, letting himself regain consciousness and letting his brain return to reality. Finally, unable to move, Sebastian fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands, sobbing uncontrollably. He was so uncertain, so unsure of the calling. It wasn’t enough. He had so many questions, so many doubts. Sorrow crashed over him like a tidal wave and the animal that had threatened to unleash itself all day exploded out in a fury. He just sat there, weeping, forgetting that the others were there watching, waiting and expecting him to keep control. For some time, all that was heard in the Hanks' attic on Giles was the soft weeping of a confused 15-year-old boy.