Circle Quartet: 39

Chapter 39

I walk to Grandma Maegan’s chamber to hand in the report for the mission last night. Since I joined the Assassin Squad, it is compulsory for me to hand in the report for every mission that I’ve accomplished. I knock on the door before entering the chamber.

“Come in,” I hear her voice from inside.

I twist the door knob and slowly enter the room. Then I close the door behind me. “I’m here to hand in the report, Grandmama.”

“Oh, it’s you, Alice,” she greets and takes my hand. “Come, let’s have a night tea. I thought Saba is the one who knocks on the door. He loves to do the night visit, always asking for the cupcakes,” she leads me to the chair where she’s having a night tea.

“Granddaddy really loves cupcakes. He also asked me once to bake some cupcakes for him,” I chuckle and sit down. Grandma Maegan pours the tea for me. The tea smells nice. It’s a jasmine tea, Grandma Maegan’s favourite.

“Let me see the report,” says Grandma Maegan and I hand her the report. She reads the report and sometimes nods. And then she smiles proudly at me. “Your report is improving. I know that you don’t really like writing the report, no?”

I grin in silly. And Grandma Maegan is right.

“Not really. Report seems difficult than writing journals. But I try to write it as good as I can,” I say and sip the tea.

“You have long way to learn, Alice,” Grandma Maegan smiles. “Since that you’re here, there’s something I want to tell you.” Her smile doesn’t fade from her face as she hands me a brown envelope.

I take that envelope, feeling a little bit jumpy. Grandma Maegan asks me to open it. There’s a letter inside it and I read it thoroughly.

“Tell me I’m not dreaming, Grandmama,” I shake my head in disbelief.

“You’re definitely not dreaming, Alice!” she says in a singsong voice.

“Oh God! I…I don’t know what to say, Grandmama! This is…this is unbelievable!” I cry in excitement. “Thank you so much for this!” I rise from my seat and hug her. She pats me on my back; congratulate me while kissing both of my cheeks.

My dream comes true.

“Cheers!” We hold our wine glass high. “To our new squad!” Then we gulp down the red wine, except for me. I drink blood, of course. It’s not that I don’t like red wine but purifying blood is much better.

“I can’t believe that we’re in the same team!” cries Raina in excitement.

“Well, I can’t believe that Grandma Zelda choose you for this special team,” Alex glances playfully at Raina.

“I think you’re just jealous, Alex, because I didn’t have to take the examination,” Raina smirks. “Grandma knows my potential very well.”

“She knows that you’ll fail, Raina. Believe me,” teases Alex.

“Okay, that’s enough you two,” warns Beatrice. Both of them shut their mouth but still glaring at each other.

We; Stefan, Tavis, Alex, Beatrice, Raina and I, are been appointed to the Special Squad Team. Our goal is only one; finding Cody. Even though this is only temporary, we are so excited and will try for our best to accomplish our mission.

But I’m rather worried about Raina and Alex since they always create a ‘war’. (Alex is Raina big brother who is as same age as mine, but he seldom talking to me unless it’s necessary)

“I can’t believe that Granddaddy choose me to join this group. I’ve just finished my special training,” says Tavis, munching on his meat.

“And I hope that you won’t be careless as you always did,” chuckles Stefan. Tavis pouts and we laugh. “So, who’s going to be a leader?” asks Stefan.

“I vote for Stefan!” I raise my hand.

“And I second the motion,” Alex raises his hand too.

So, it’s decided that Stefan will be our leader for the new team. We eat merrily until our stomach is full. After that, I teleport to my room. Since Abby is on her mission, I’m going to be alone for a while. Then, I summon Jeff from the necklace.

“Hey, hey, congratulations for the promotion. Come on, give me a big hug!” Jeff spreads his arms wide.

I hug him (even though he’s a spirit, I can touch him) and say thank you.

“And, I have special presents for you. I put it on your study table,” beams Jeff in excitement.

“Really? That really sweet of you,” I giggle and go to the study table. There’s an envelope, tied with a red ribbon. “A card?” I try to guess.

“Nope,” Jeff shakes his head, smiling. “Open it. I know you’re going to be surprise.”

I open the envelope slowly. There are some papers inside. My eyes widen when I read those papers.

“Jeff, where did you get this?” I ask him, frowning.

“When you go to sleep, I went to several places where Alse had been. I found a house in the middle of a forest, an abandoned house to be precise. I wrote every single evidence that I’ve found in that house on these papers. And since you’ve been assigned to search for Cody, I think the job is going to be easier,” explains Jeff.

This is unbelievable! Two wonderful things happen in just one night.

“I need to tell the others about this. Maybe we can go and search for Cody tonight,” I collect the papers and put them back in the envelope. “Thanks so much, Jeff.”

“Anything for you, little buddy,” he smiles and shrugs. “The night is still young. You shouldn’t waste much time,” he winks and disappears.

I smile and contact my new squad members via telepathy. All of them agree to meet in the library.

I explain every single thing to them – but not mentioning Jeff’s name, that I’ve found the evidences by accident. They are confused at first – except Stefan, but then they know what exactly that should do. All of us agree that we should go to that abandoned house and look for Cody. One of the papers mentions about the secret underground door.

We arrived at the abandoned house in the middle of the forest. This is the forest where Alse attacked me, Stefan and Raven back then, when we’re trying to spy on her. Stefan and Tavis, who are already in the werewolf mode, sensing for Alse or her creatures but there’s nothing here, except for the house.

We creep in slowly. Raina clutch on my hand as she is scared of the place like this. How irony! A witch is not supposed to be afraid of the dark.

The house is dusty; cobwebs blanketed the most part of the house. There isn’t any furniture much except for few shelves. The wooden floor gives an eerie squeak as we step on it. So this is how it feels when entering a ghost house, except that this is worse than a ghost house.

Guys, I found the secret door. Stefan calls out.

I can smell something fishy down there. Says Tavis.

Alex checks on the secret door whether it had been bound by magic but it’s not. So he pulls the handle hard. The door creaks open and it’s very dark down there. Beatrice creates floating fires and we take a step down there with Stefan leading.

“It smells like rotten eggs,” Raina wrinkles her nose in disgust.

“Worse than that,” I add, cover my nose with my hand. I can’t stand the smell.

I look around and spot something that makes me gasp out loud. I can’t believe what I am looking right now.

“Cody!” I scream terrifyingly as I see him being chained on a wall.

We rush to him and I cut the chain with my sword. Stefan quickly turns back to normal and catches Cody’s body before he hits the ground. He looks awful with deep wound and cuts.

We gather around him and Beatrice and Raina start to heal him. He slowly opens his eyes and looks around.

“Cody, what in the world had happened to you?” asks Stefan in a sad voice.

‘Stef…why? Why…did you save me?” asks Cody, barely whisper. Then he looks at me. This scene reminds me of the day before Jeff’s death. I try to hold my tears.

“Because you’re my family, Cody,” answers Stefan gently.

“But…I’ve betrayed our clan. I nearly killed Nash and…Granddaddy,” he says in weak voice. “You should leave me rot here.”

“No!” Stefan hushes him. “Don’t say that. You’re still my brother, Cody. I can’t leave my brother behind.”

“We need to take him back to the Academy,” says Alex in a serious tone. “He’s been poisoned and he still has time to be cured.”

Stefan slowly picks Cody’s body, with the help of Tavis and Alex. Raina and Beatrice cast a spell that can teleport us back to the Academy within no time.

We can’t let him die here. And in fact, I don’t want anyone to die because of that damn witch!