In the Attic

     She flipped over and stared at Cocoa Bean, her Harris, which was perched on top of the stack of towels on the bathroom floor.

     Cocoa Bean stared back.

     Silver sighed again, flipped over, and mournfully watched the gray clouds roll east towards her house. She checked the clock. It was early afternoon. Silver tumbled out of the bathtub, ignoring the puddles of bath water she trailed behind her tail. She dried herself and the floor as best as she could, picked up Cocoa Bean and floated out of the room.

     ***

     Silver was a Flotsam. A ghost one, by the way. So instead of dragging herself across the floor, she would just float gracefully across the room. Her brother, Tealeafes, was a green Shoyru, but was saving up for a Royal Paint Brush. Silver and Tea were moving somewhere exotic. Their owner had told them so.

     Now their owner was out on some errands and getting food for lunch. In the meantime, Tea was lounging on a sofa reading a comic with his plushie slorg, Plooshy, and Silver was brushing Cocoa Bean’s fur.

     “Boring, isn’t it?” Tealeafes finally said.

     “Mm,” replied Silver. She struggled to work out a knot in Cocoa Bean’s fur. Cocoa Bean played with his toys as though nothing was happening.

     “Well, I am going to the attic to get some more comics. It will only take a bit. You can stay here until our owner comes,” Tealeafes stated as he fluttered up the stairs.

     Silver didn’t say anything. A few seconds later, she heard a slam of a door somewhere above her head.

      It was until about an hour later that Silver started to worry. Tealeafes still hadn’t come down from the attic. She was considering coming up to go rescue him until suddenly the doorbell rang. Their owner had come home.

     She opened the door.

     “Hey, Silver, how are you doing? It’s almost time for lunch. Where’s Tea?”

     “Up in the attic. I’ll carry the bags to the kitchen, and you go get him.”

     Silver carried the bags to the kitchen. Then she sat down at the table and waited for them to join her.

     Outside, it started raining. The steady tap, tap tap of the rain made Silver drowsy. Her eyes closed slowly, and her head drooped over the table.

     And she fell asleep.

     ***

     Silver woke up suddenly. It was dark outside. And the house was still and quiet. No one was in the kitchen.

     Silver slowly got out of the chair, and cautiously floated into the hallway. The passage was quiet. The stairs were ominous and almost disappeared into the darkness.

     Silver started to climb the stairs. She had never noticed how long the stairs stretched on to. And she had never noticed how dark it was up here. Finally, she ascended to the top. The hallway was bare and at the very end there was a door covered in peeling black paint. It was very dark. Only a dim yellow light shone from a single naked bulb hanging on the ceiling.

     It looked so creepy that Silver wanted to scream and fly down the stairs and run outside. But she held her breath and glided towards the door. Her heart pounded in her chest as she neared the door. Silver closed her fin around the doorknob, closed her eyes, and pulled. The door swung open silently, and Silver glided in.

     It was pitch black behind the door. It was definitely time to get out of here. Silver was so overcome with fright that she accidentally tumbled over something in the room in her haste to get out and her tail slammed onto the door, closing it for good.

     “AAAAAAAAHH!” Silver screamed.

     She closed her eyes and covered her head with her fins, bracing the impact of a monster to come. When nothing happened, Silver peeked out of one eye and gasped. The room was no longer pitch black. In fact, it was bright and lights shone in the corner of the room. On the left side of the wall there was an enormous stained glass window, painted in hues of gold and green. On the right side of the wall there was a huge jar full of... well, Silver couldn’t really tell what they were as the inside of the jar was shrouded in mist, but she could see there were gleaming white, brightly polished objects. At the end of the room there stood a giant tapestry. She went a little closer to the tapestry. Suddenly the cloth rippled and shook as if it was alive.

     Silver choked back a shriek and cautiously glided forward. The tapestry settled. Then fell to the floor. Out of the shadows, two hideous creatures stepped out. By their looks, Silver could tell they were mutant pets of some sort.

     Silver made to turn around and run for her life, but like the speed of light, one of the creatures tackled Silver and snarled visciously, “You ain’t gonna be going anywhere, fer sure. Not until you’ve made yer way to our dinner plates!”

     Silver heard some cackling, some conversation about heating a pot, and some more cackling. Then as the venom coursed through her veins she fell immobilized, numb and unable to think anymore.

     On the ground, she fell asleep.

     ***

     “So, dinner, how would you like to be eaten? Fried to a crisp? Roasted? Boiled?”

     Silver woke up inside a large jar and the tapping on the glass walls annoyed her briefly. Then, she suddenly realized what was happening and immediately sobered up again.

     Silver was about to be eaten up. Her thoughts wandered back to the giant jar of gleaming white objects. Suddenly, she realized what the objects were and closed her eyes in disgust.

     “So I’m going to end up a pile of bones, huh?” Silver muttered. The walls were glass, so what if she attempted to break through the glass? Silver pushed on the wall of the jar. Solid. She hit it, hard. All Silver got was a bruise on her fin. Wincing in pain, she comprehended that the glass jar had been enchanted with some strange spell. She smelt boiling water nearby and frantically searched for an opening.

     “There has got to be a weak spot somewhere...” muttered Silver as she ran her hands over the smooth glass. Silver tapped various areas on the glass and listened for a different sound. Finally, after a few minutes of tapping, Silver heard a weaker, hollow sound coming from a tiny spot near the bottom of the jar. Quickly glancing at the monsters not too far away, Silver hit the spot repeatedly until the glass cracked a bit. She waited until the monsters went away to search for the peppershaker, and swiftly shattered the glass and pushed herself out.

     “Looks like those lessons every day at the Academy have finally paid off,” muttered Silver as she quickly soared out of the kitchen.

     Silver was almost at the black door at the end of the room until she remembered something.

     Oh yeah, I have to go save Tealeafes and my owner.

     Silver sighed, and hid behind the glass jar of (gulp) bones and waited for the monsters to come out.

     A few minutes later, she heard furious voices from the kitchen and heavy footsteps coming her way. Silver braced herself, and when the nearest monster rounded the corner she swung her powerful tail and knocked him out cold. With a snarl, the other monster turned as quick as lightning to meet her, but Silver was ready. She ducked to avoid the monster’s heavy thrust, and flipped him over on his back with her tail. As the monster fell heavily on the ground and grunted in pain, Silver grabbed the filthy creature’s shoulders and yelled, “WHERE ARE MY BROTHER AND OWNER?”

     The monster, overcome with fright, grunted, “Mithius,” and instantly vanished into a large puff of green smoke.

     Coughing and waving the green cloud away, Silver staggered into position and stumbled into the kitchen. Eyes watering, she scanned the room and saw another plain black door in the corner of the room. She threw the door open and stared at a miniature labyrinth. The labyrinth stared back at her.

     Sighing again, Silver glided in and observed each entrance into the maze in front of her. She floated into the left one, and began her search for this “Mithius.”

     ***

     It had been probably over an hour when Silver slid down a wall to rest. Panting heavily, she mopped her brow and squinted, unsure where to go. As she scanned the maze walls, she could see a tiny speck of light maybe about a hundred feet ahead from her. Standing up, Silver followed the light to another, plain black door.

     Silver opened the door. The door slid open silently, as light as a feather.

     The room was dimly lit, and at the very back of the room she could see a huge, hairy figure sitting atop a throne of bones, and sitting next to the beast there stood a little glass jar, no, two jars containing something very small and luminous.

     My owner and Tealeafes, thought Silver as she bravely floated into the room.

     Abruptly the beast stood up. “If you have come to rescue these souls inside these jars you may as well turn around now. As I am not in a good mood today as my two henchmen were defeated, I will allow you only ten seconds to retreat--or I will devour you like the two lost souls I have here for later.” The beast sat down and smiled, a very nasty smile that made Silver very uncomfortable indeed.

     But in spite of her fear, Silver bellowed, “GIVE THEM BACK!” and charged towards the beast. Surprised at her reaction, the monster let its guard down and crashed into the wall, knocked out for the moment. Realizing she had to hurry, Silver swiftly picked up the two jars and shot out of the room. Gliding through the maze at random, Silver heard heavy breathing and snarling behind her and let out a small wail. With a burst of speed, Silver shot out of the maze like a cannon and slammed the door. Something smashed into the door and fell somewhere behind the room. Silver, still clutching the two jars, swiftly floated to the door leading out and rattled it. It was locked! Silver scanned the walls, searching for a way out and noticed the glass window.

     Looks like there’s no other choice, Silver thought grimly as she hurled herself at the window. She braced herself against the glass but nothing came. She peeked out and gasped. Her body was going through the glass without breaking it! Then Silver (yes, in midair) slapped her forehead and muttered, “Ghost powers, how could I forget?” as she fell through the air.

     Silver landed at the foot of the stairs in her own house, and slumped over the floor. She dragged herself into her kitchen and laid the glass jars on the table.

     “Go on, change. Transform. Do whatever it takes to turn yourselves back,” Silver whispered at the tiny glowing specks. As the little specks whirled around and danced in front of her eyes, Silver felt drowsy.

     With her head on the table, Silver fell asleep.

     ***

     Silver woke up to someone shaking her shoulder.

     “Silver, why were you napping? Were we taking too long?”

     Her owner and Tealeafes chuckled as they laid out the food for lunch. As they munched on Altadorian bread and cheese, Tea and Silver’s owner talked and laughed as Silver dreamily sipped her juice, thinking about her adventure in the attic.

     As a spring breeze picked up some leaves and twirled them in the air outside, Silver smiled to herself and thought,

     Gone long? You have no idea.

The End