The Crystal Heart: Part Two

      "Katie, are you okay?! I was on my way to find the Gym, but I got lost and heard you crying and thought I could help and... it was you!" Kassy told her in a hurry.

      "Oh, so you thought that you would ruin my life some more, did you?" Katie asked.

      "Katie, look, I'm really sorry that there was no more room left for you in your tower, but it's really now my fault!" Kassy told her, afraid she was too harsh.

      "You... you really don't know, do you?" Katie asked.

      "Know what?"

      "Look, I'm going to tell you something. Something that you must never, ever, repeat to anyone. Ever. Okay?"

      Kassy nodded, then shut the door and sat next to Katie, eager to hear what she was going to say.

      "There was room in my tower for me this year. I asked to be moved to another tower. Because of what happened last year. I was friends with those girls that I saw you eating breakfast with just a few minutes ago." Katie began.

      "You mean, Karly and the others?" Kassy interrupted.

      Katie nodded. "They pretended they were friends of mine. We were literally this close. We had a room that could be accessed from the Dark faerie tower room. It had only one flaw: you couldn't hear what people inside were saying if you were in a particular storage room. However, they could hear what people in the storage room were saying, too." Katie paused.

      "This storage room?" Kassy whispered.

      Katie nodded, eyes wide. "But they're not in there now. They wouldn't miss Dark Faeries 101 for the world. They want to know how not to get caught. They skip every other class, though. Anyways, the main point here is what they do in there. Ever hear of something called The Crystal Heart?"

      Kassy nodded. "It's a heart shaped crystal, and when powers from all six types of faeries are put in it then it creates peace between all of the types of faeries. Katie, it's a fictional book series. The Crystal Heart is not real."

      Katie shook her head. "Listen, Kassy, I know. But last year, on the field trip to Faerieland, did you go on the tour of Fyora's castle? "

      Kassy shook her head. Jessie had taken the tour the previous years, and she wanted to spend her last field trip having fun watching Poogle races, spinning the wheel of excitement, that sort of thing. Kassy gladly had gone with her.

      "Well, we all did. And our tour guide, he said something peculiar. He told us that the author of those books was his Aunt, and even though it's a fiction book, his Aunt really had found The Crystal Heart, and hid it from all of the Dark faeries. He said it's rumored to be somewhere in the castle."

      "And Karly wants it? Well, why should we stop peace?" Kassy asked.

      "Karly doesn't want it to make peace! She wants to destroy the Heart! Kassy, you have to believe me, we can't make that happen! They'll make their next move next week, they have another trip there for History. We all have the same teacher, so all the second years get to go! They're giving us another tour of the castle! Help me. Kassy! We'll have five hours in that castle, but they'll have a head start!" Katie looked slightly crazy, but Kassy had to admit that what she was saying made sense. She had no choice but to believe her.

      "Okay, I believe you. And I'll help you search for the Heart. But, say we do find it before Karly and them. What then?"

      Katie sighed. " I was hoping we could use it. But we would need someone from each of the six types of faeries. "

      I thought about that for a moment. "That's it! At lunch. We'll go to second class when it's time, and then at lunch, we'll sit with some girls who tried to befriend me last year. I was planning to sit with them anyway. They can help us."

      Katie smiled. "Thank you, Kassy. I'm sorry about yesterday."

      "Yeah, where did you go yesterday? I hope you didn't go into the common room. With Karly and them in there."

      Katie shook her head. "No. I was in here. That's how I knew that they were planning to find it next week on the trip."

      Kassy nodded, then brushed off the dirt on her back and stood up. "Hey, by the way, why did Karly and them make your life miserable?"

      Katie winced. " I wanted to back out when I knew what they were planning. They let me, but also told a lie that I had stolen their wands to use for my own evil matters. No one would talk to me after that. But they didn't stop there. They told a whole bunch of lies about me stealing things, just to be sure no one ever talked to me." Katie looked down at her feet sadly.

      "Hey. We'll stop them. Don't worry, Katie. Just remember to meet me at lunch. We can trust them. See you then." They walked out of the storage closet as the bell rang.

      The rest of the morning, to Kassy, seemed to move by quickly. She paid attention in her classes, and soon lunch came. She collected her Spaghetti faerie Hoops and Strawberry Faerie Sundae, and then found Celine, Nikki, Mandy, Heather and Rosie sitting nearby.

      Kassy waked over to them. "Sorry about this morning. Here's my roommate, Katie," Kassy told them as Katie walked over with a Celestial Salad, Faerie Crisps, and Faerie Bonbons.

      "Can I fill them in?" Kassy asked Katie as she took a seat. Katie nodded. "I'll keep a lookout for Karly and the others. Make it fast."

      At a rapid speed, Kassy told the shocked Celine, Nikki, Mandy, Heather, and Rosie about everything Katie had told her that morning in the storage room.

      "And we can help you?" Celine asked, smiling.

      Kassy nodded. "But only if we're all in. It won't work if we're one person less. Everyone in?" The excited faeries all nodded.

      Kassy smiled. "Good. Now, the only thing we can do from now until next Monday."

      "It's going to be a loooong four days," Rosie predicted.

      As it turned out, Rosie was right. By the time it was midday on Monday, the girls were excited as they finished their lunch and headed for the Queen's castle.

      Soon after, they were in the castle and had already done their role call. It was time to begin their search for The Crystal Heart.

      Kassy took out seven pencils from the bag she had brought. "This is a buzzer. If you press the eraser, like this," she pressed the blue eraser. All seven pencils buzzed. "I brought them so that we can communicate. I figure we'd all take a different part of the castle to search. If we press the button once, that means we found the crystal and we should meet outside of Fyora's quarters. Twice means that someone is in trouble. And did you see how the other pencils turned blue when I buzzed the blue one? It means the buzzing came from the blue one. As long as we remember who is where, what the signals are, and who has what colored pencil! Easy enough, hub?" Kassy smiled as she handed them out.

      Everyone nodded. They all separated as soon as they told each other where'd they search and what color pencil they had.

      When that was done, they had divided the castle into six equal parts. "I'm going to tail Karly and them. I'll stop them if I can," Kassy told everyone, who nodded. If they found the heart without her, Celine could manage putting in the Light faerie power. Tailing Karly was just as important as finding the heart.

      After that, they dispersed into the castle and searched high and low. Everyone except Kassy, who was following the guide with Karly and her followers. They saw quite a bit before Karly stepped out of the group. They were near Fyora's quarters. Kassy followed closely behind. She could hear what they were saying.

      "Emmy, make sure that you search everywhere for that heart. If anyone finds anything, come and find me. I'm going to search for the statue. If the heart really does, have that much power, maybe it can unfreeze my distant Auntie. To the gardens to search for Xandra. When I unfreeze her, I'll make sure that she'll have the Heart to destroy!" Karly laughed.

      Kassy gasped. Too late, she remembered that she was supposed to be incognito.

      "What was that?!" Karly whipped her head around. Kassy shrank into a crevice in between the walls. Unless Karly searched the walls thoroughly, she would still go unnoticed.

      Unfortunately, Karly checked every nook and cranny. "Gotcha!" Karly exclaimed when she got hold of Kassy's arm after peering into the crevice.

      "What do we have here? A tag-along? Did you really think that we were friends?" Karly laughed maliciously.

      "I-I want to help you! I want to help you find what you're looking for?" Kassy gasped.

      "Right. I've seen you, whispering with Katie, You know what we're looking for! You're probably just a diversion! Well, we just so happen to know what to do with liars, don't we girls?" Karly asked her cronies.

      "Yes! Yes, we do, Karly!" they all answered in unison. Strange, Kassy noticed. Almost as if they were- under a spell! Karly's!

      Karly took Kassy's arm and shoved her into a nearby supply closet. She shut the door and locked it with a spell.

      Kassy took a moment to take in the situation and think about what she had heard.

      It didn't make much sense to her. How could Karly be a descendant of Xandra? She was a faerie! At least, she looked like a faerie. Maybe she put a spell on herself so she would appear to be a faerie. Then Kassy remembered. Her friends needed to know if she was in danger. She took out her pencil buzzer, thankfully it had been concealed in her pocket when Karly had captured her. She pressed the eraser part two times, meaning she was in danger.

To be continued...