Chapter 2 The rock hit the shield with a deafening bang. The shield clattered out of his hands, and there was a huge dent in it, I didn't know much about shields, but I did know that the dent couldn't have been a good thing. Jackson got up and ran toward a tree and once he got there, he ducked behind it and grabbed something I couldn't quite make out. The harpy slowly started making it's way to Jackson . Then I realized what he had, a bow and a quiver of arrows. He drew the string back and fired. I watched the arrow whizz through the air and land a perfect shot right in the harpy's heart. We heard it screech and watched it turn to yellow dust. Jackson sighed, "Well, that's done." "You just-the rock-and what happened?" Will stuttered "And how did you do that first try?" "Long story." He muttered, ignoring the second half of the question. "Well sit down and I'll explain everything I can." We all sat in a circle me next to Jackson, on my other side was Will, next to Will was Everett, and next to Everett was Paige. "Well, I don't know where should I begin." "Maybe start with what that thing was, why it turned into yellow powder, and why it took James ." I said quietly. "Yeah , that would be a good place to start." Will looked like he was going to cry again. I didn't know what to think. I was terrified, and I had no idea if I was ever going to see James again. I never liked the feeling of being in the dark, but especially not now, and I wondered why Jackson was so hesitant to tell us what was going on. "So all the monsters work for a higher power-" "WAIT! There's MORE of them?" Paige exclaimed. "Yes there are more of them-" "What's the higher power you are talking about?" Will asked, impatiently. "You didn't let me finish. So continuing where I left off-" "Why was the bow and arrow under the tree?" Everett was the one to ask this time. "Oh, that one's easy. So you know that I have ADHD, right?" "Yeah." "Well I forget things a lot, I don't know if it's just a me thing or an ADHD thing in general, but since not having a weapon could be the difference between living or not living, I kinda stashed stuff in the forest." "Jackson, you can't stash weapons in the forest." "I can and I did." "But people need to use those-" "Yeah, me." "Jackson, don't do that anymore, and later, I'll be finding the weapons and bringing them back." "Jackson, what happened to James?" Will asked impatiently. "Yeah... sorry about the hold up." Jackson muttered "Well as you probably already know, he was taken by the harpy thing, also known as Bertha." "Why Bertha?" Paige asked, curiously. Everett buried his head in his hands as if Jackson was about to tell an embarrassing story about him. "One day Everett told me that most monsters are technically ancient and then he told me he had never met a young person named Bertha, so now we call a lot of weird old things Bertha." "You lost me." Page muttered. "Okay then, I will explain things quickly, and ask questions after I'm done explaining. Got it?" We all nodded.
"Alright, question number one, the yellow powder means Bertha is immortal, if it were red, then that would mean she is dead and not coming back. And finally green, that means she still has at least one life left." He said that all in one breath which was honestly impressive. "All monsters work for Unheimlich, and Unheimlich has promised to grant immortality to any monster that can kill nine of us in the span of three lifetimes. If they can kill nine before dying three times then they become immortal, and if they can't then, well, they die." "Jackson, this seems cool and all, but how does this tie in to finding and or saving James? " I asked, quietly, while looking at my shoes. "I'm getting there." Jackson muttered. "Basically, when Unheimlich orders a monster to do something, they kinda have to do it. He has full control over weather or not certain monsters are immortal. He might have picked James because he wants us all in a certain place, and it's easier to grab one third grader, than it is to grab a third grader, three fith graders, and a sixth grader. If we want to save your brother, we'll have to go to Unheimlich's realm, and bargain. " "So, in short, my brother has been kidnapped, my parents are gone for a week, and if we want to save him, we have to go confront an all powerful demon lord, and in doing so we might get killed. Did I hear that right?" Will asked. "Yeah, pretty much." "Great. Yippity skippity." I snapped a twig in half. "Jackson, what time is it?" He checked his watch. "9:37, why do you need to know?" "If we're late, the school automatically calls my mom." "We'll be fine." Will said, slightly smiling. "Why do you say that?" "Remember when the bot that calls the parents when we're late kept bugging and calling her when we were in class?" "Yeah...?" "She changed the number in the system from her real number to *pretend there's something here, scratch won't let you include phone numbers." "What does that do?" "When you call it a bot says 'I am Groot' until you hang up." I nodded. In normal circumstances I would have started cracking up, but I felt numb, and honestly, I didn't know what to do. Everett stood up, looked around and said, "Guys, lets get a move on, we don't know when Bertha is coming back, but I don't want to be over here when she does."
