Forced Participants Arrive

Chapter 2 - Forced Participants Arrive

Fifteen hours earlier...

Whistling noises cracked through the air.

SNAP!

A red line appeared across Andre's left shoulder because the whip missed his face by a narrow margin.

"You were supposed to arrive yesterday!" Matilda snarled. "How dare you defy my request for your arrival at the stated time."

Andre's emerald eyes narrowed menacingly, making her back away warily. Shoulder-length maroon hair whipped around his shoulders as he regarded her hostilely. "The weather is absolutely horrible elsewhere. I find this little paradise of yours utterly nauseating." He spat at her feet.

Crack! This time a second whip snapped and marked his face. "Don't be rude to your mother, Andre," Dougal growled. "You know very well why you were returned here." His visible sneer made Andre's eyebrows snap together. Did they know about the assassination hit placed on them?

Maribel exhaled. She wasn't faring much better than him. All of her neatly bundled silvery-white hair tangled in bloody skeins around her face. Angry crystalline silver eyes regarded Matilda and Dougal with murderous intent.

Their parents sure hadn't held back their wrath once the business deal met with failure. They opted to reward some further wrongdoing of Duran's by venting their anger on him. As a result, Duran had received an even worse punishment. He'd been locked in with the now ex-business partners. They shuddered upon hearing the noise emanating from the barn. Later, Andre snuck into the building and retrieved his unconscious brother. What he'd seen made him sick, literally, throwing up all over the satiated business partners. That turned out to be an unwise decision, which resulted in further unpleasantness that was completely unwarranted. Andre scowled in recollection. Unfortunately, that led to another beating for Duran, who could barely move earlier. Andre sighed. He was tired of this toxic atmosphere.

Surprisingly, Matilda and Dougal ceased their activities when something chimed in the immediate vicinity. "Who is it?" Matilda snapped.

A tall man made his entrance. He had long maroon-colored hair neatly corralled in a long braid, tucked into a high-collared jacket. His cold green eyes made Matilda and Dougal recoil. His very aura radiated contemptuous fury and dangerous intent.

"This Maurice Roma. I'm here for Duran as scheduled." Maurice snapped. "Don't even think about denying me entrance, either." His fury was evident when he appeared on the scene and surveyed the damage. "Up to your old tricks again, I see. Or rather, I should assume you never quit using blood sorceries?" He glanced at Mirabel and Andre briefly, missing nothing of what happened to them. "You really ought to quit this nonsense before someone puts a hit on you two."

His seething ire made Andre and Mirabel cringe. If what he said was true, they'd been grossly negligent in their duties. The brother and sister signed in resignation. Great, it was evident that Maurice came on a separate mission entirely.

*

It was a chilly, damp, and relatively frustratingly barren sight to Maurice's eyes when arriving at his brother's stronghold. It was just typical of his timing to arrive in time to witness yet another collective beating.

Maurice sighed as he removed his hat from his head. "This is becoming redundant. Must I order a bounty on these fools to get them to quit?" His outrage built when he noticed Duran lying off one side in an unconscious, bloody heap.

Concerned though he was about his nephew, Maurice opted to hold off on examining him. Right now, he had to curtail all of Matilda and Dougal's activities so that they'd be presentable when the other visitors arrived.

Which they would in the next half hour or so. "What a waste of magic and materials." He shook his head in disgust. "I can't believe this. Why should I have to clean up after their messes after all this time?" He fumed.

As far as Maurice was concerned, there wasn't anything worth salvaging from this place. Well, not quite. There was Duran and a couple of the kids. Some of them might be tamable after going through physiological evaluations. He shook his head. From what he could tell, others were too entrenched in Matilda and Dougal's twisted views of how the world should work.

"At least I managed to avoid making promises to those leeches hovering by the tram site." He shuddered in revulsion. "None of them will come near my vehicle after the barriers I placed on it this time."

After a few delays through interfering councilmembers who hadn't wanted Maurice to arrive at the house until after Matilda and Dougal finished their bloody business, Maurice arrived. "Those slimy bastards actually thought they could deter me from arriving here? I don't think so." He'd received word about Duran having been sent an acceptance letter. It should've arrived today. Nothing reported from Duran prompted Maurice to enlist Maribel and Andre's assistance. "I should've known those two would do something drastic to keep Matilda and Dougal occupied."

This wasn't an approved method, but Maurice discovered they were just as twisted and crazy as their parents. However, they'd learned some form of ethics and used them in their assigned tasks. Maybe they were also here on a mission in addition to what he'd asked of them? It would make sense from all the mayhem he'd discovered up to the stronghold. Fantastic, at least it would give him the excuse to haul Duran out of this blood-infested demonic lair that the citadel had become.

Maurice glanced around comprehensively and shook his head in disgust. As he suspected, they only wanted to ensure that the two completed their latest blood offering. His nose wrinkled in acute disgust.

Even he could see the barely disguised magic equation inscribed in the ground where blood dripped continuously from the ones being whipped. "Good grief, now they're attacking Maribel and Andre. Are they that starved for new blood to fuel their latest activities?"

Hmm, well, he had arrived with dispatch. Maurice turned his attention to the errant couple who'd gone too far overboard for redemption in his view. "Time for you to quit this now, or I'm bringing in other authorities."

Maurice held up his phone as he spoke. He was already pressing numbers into a sequence that alerted the highest elders of the world. They needed to get off their a$$es and do something about this situation.

That threat was sufficient to make Matilda and Dougal stop in their tracks. "Release them, or I make calls. You know I will do it in less than a heartbeat." He rarely threw his weight around, but in this case, Maurice felt justified. Not only that, but he outranked them when it came to controlling all kinds of nifty magical skills and elements.

*

Several hours later, the two woke up in an unfamiliar room at roughly 4 a.m. in the pre-dawn. There was only moonlight shining through the one mostly blacked-out window in the room.

Neither Mirabel nor Andre recalled why they'd reappeared in their old home, much less the room they'd shared with four siblings. Now it was just the two of them. They sat on opposite sides of the room and looked around.

An awful stench emanated from both of them. "Huh?" How had they gone from the outside to here? Mirabel looked at Andre. "Is it just me, or do we also stink of alcohol?" She didn't remember drinking anything.

Andre blinked. "Give me a second, would you?" She shrugged, and then blurry memories hit her from what happened. She began recalling everything in minor blips.

At last, Andre scrubbed the back of his neck. "Oh right, we were forced into a drinking contest to assuage the remnants of Matilda and Dougal once some other folks arrived." He shook his head. "Now, all we need to do is find that damned letter."

Maribel pondered. "It should be somewhere in here." She sniffed the air and grimaced. "Hmm, there is a slight unfamiliar tint, but I can't quite locate it."

Andre glanced at her. "Start searching your memories. That might jog an unexpected location loss."

Maribel grunted. "Back at you." She shook her head. "I think I'm just worried about who else is set to arrive."

Andre's mouth compressed. "Right." He sighed heavily.

***Brief Flashback***

Dazed and bewildered, Mirabel idly wondered just how much stamina Duran possessed to have held out this long under an unreasonably insane environment. When she and Andre were released at Maurice's demands, she was shocked. Typically, he ignored what happened to her and Andre since they were adults. However, he was short-tempered and ready to kill. That was what she read in his aura. "He's got some plan hatching," Mirabel muttered to Andre.

"Yep, and he expects us to finish what we started here." Andre glanced at her. "That means no more fooling around. We have to find that letter." They exhaled in frustration. "Not to mention now we have to provide a distraction that'll keep Matilda and Dougal busy." Andre grimaced.

Mirabel understood his feelings completely. Given their druthers, they'd rather be anywhere but there. however, orders such as the sort Mirabel received, she couldn't ignore them or fail either. "Hmm, we or someone else needs to remove the girls from here as soon as possible." She tilted her head. "What about the boys?"

Andre shrugged and shook his head. "I think at least two, maybe three, have some empathy for Duran. I could be mistaken, though."

He watched as Mirabel stiffened and frowned as her wrist communicator went off. "Damn." Her low mutter presaged further bad news.

"Now what?" Maybe the information could be leveraged to salvage something of the situation. Even if everyone was reported dead, at least it meant some kids could survive with new names, appearances, and lives elsewhere. To Andre, that was a best-case scenario out of this horrible mess.

Mirabel's expression turned pinched. "Rafael and Tallow are coming." She stated tersely. "I don't know about you, but I want to wrap this mess up before they set foot on the property."

Andre's shoulders twitched. "Damn all of this situation to hell, indeed." He agreed abruptly with a sigh. "Do you have something to wrap up in?" Her clothing was shredded.

Mirabel waved a hand. All signs of whipping, shredded clothing, and blood were gone. Now she remained very pristine indeed. That is, if no one smelled the scent of blood coating her. She caught his skeptical stare. "I can't do much about the blood scent. I do need to take a shower."

Andre sighed. "Go deal with that then." Maybe he should track down the three boys and see if they were worth salvaging or not from this horrific situation. "I'll stay here and think of something to do." Of the two brothers soon to arrive. He preferred dealing with Rafael.

Mirabel grunted. "Good luck with finding them." Her nose wrinkled. "I'm afraid that Matilda and Dougal already did something with the trio before we arrived."

Andre shook his head. "Why did mother and father command those two to arrive?" He and Tallow had had some severe misunderstandings in the past. Neither Andre nor Tallow wanted anything to do with the other.

*

Andre shuddered. "Oh right, we hid here because Tallow and Rafael showed up." He shook his head in disgust. "I think I remember Tallow saying something about a hidden compartment in one of the drawers of the bigger chest beneath the window."

They looked at it and at each other with a wince. "This is going to get real noisy fast," Andre muttered.

"The floor isn't stable either." Maribel hoped nothing would break beneath their weight.

"Where is Duran's room that he shares with his brothers?" She couldn't remember.

When Andre extended his hand and pointed right below their feet, Mirabel swore furiously. "That just figures. Well, let's look for it."

They set about it with extreme speed and a lack of patience. Maribel felt bad for Duran, unable to sleep. However, what they were doing would make the difference between life and death for him and any younger children who were halfway decent in attitude and manners.

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