Chapters June, 25 Spain, Madrid“Eddie”
The day was perfect. I was resting my eyes while I sat in a bank. The park in which I was had banks everywhere, but in this one I could feel the rays of the sun warming up my skin…
“Eddie”
I opened my eyes slowly and met two green eyes looking directly at me.
“What’s the matter Johnny?” I said.
“I was talking to you about these vacations when you fell asleep,” said my little brother, Johnny, with a concerned look in his face. “Is everything alright?”
“Yeah. Everything is alright” I yawned. Just a little bit tired about the flight, that’s all.”
“Well, I understand, you haven’t slept in a week! You've been working a lot,” he said.
“We've all worked a lot, and we deserve these vacations,” I replied. “You've gotten great grades!”
“Yeah…” he responded with a sad look on his face.
“Is something wrong?” I asked concerned.
“I miss her Eddie.”
I looked at him for a few seconds and then sighed. It had been two years since Jennifer had passed out and Johnny was still silent and distant since the tragic event. Jennifer was our sister, but to him, she was like a mother. When I was twenty and my sister was twenty-four, our mother was having a difficult pregnancy. During the ninth month of pregnancy our father died in a car accident, and she got depressed. She died only a few moments after Johnny was born. Jennifer and I were the only family that Johnny had left, so we were the ones who raised him. He changed my life. I was going through a difficult moment in my life, and he filled my life and my sister’s with joy, he was a wonderful child. I was still studying law and criminology, and my sister was a musician. Then, when Johnny reached the age of ten, and I got my degree in criminology, we found out that she had a strange illness. It started when I got at home on Johnny's birthday. She didn't recognize him. Then it got worse. She started to forget everything she loved in her life. It wasn't Alzheimer's disease; she was too young for that. The doctors said that we would probably never know what killed her. She died a month later, in the hospital. At that point, she had forgotten about me too. If it hadn't been for Johnny and my best friend, Mike, I would have broken. But I stayed strong. I had to. For my brother.
“Johnny… I miss her too. But we have to move on. We have to be strong for her. She would have wanted for us to be happy. We can’t keep lamenting over the past,” I said.
Johnny stared at the sky, distant, like he had been for over almost two years. “I know… but…” -he looked at me-“what if…something happens to you?”
“Johnny… I promise that nothing will happen to me. I will not abandon you .I’ll always be there. I promise.”
“Y-you promise?”
“I do.” I said. Then I searched in my pockets and I took out a silver colored locket. “Here. I want you to keep it.”
I gave him the locket and he eyed it with curiosity.
“Open it.”
He opened it and his eyes widened. In the locket there was a photograph of a blond five year old child, he was short for his age, he had green eyes and fair white skin. Standing beside him a blond woman, Jennifer was smiling at the camera. At her right there was a twenty-five year old man, me, looking at the camera while smiling. And at my right there was a man that had about the same age as me, ‘Uncle Mike’, who was holding a 4 year old girl. Hugging him was his wife, Jane, a beautiful woman with dark hair.
“If you keep it with you, you’ll always have us in your memory. But even if we’re not there, we will always be with you.”
“Even Jennifer?” he asked.
“Johnny, Jennifer will always be with us. In our hearts. In our memories.”
He smiled and then he hugged me. “Thank you so much Eddie.”
I smiled too and returned his hug.
After a while, we stopped and we noticed two people entering the almost empty park. One was an eleven year old girl, who was walking with her father, a tall man with brown hair, and glasses covering his brown eyes.
I stood up and greeted them. “Hey Mike. Hi Rose.”
“Uncle Eddie!” Rose ran at my direction and gave me a strong hug, while Johnny did the same with Mike.
“Hey there little boy!” said Mike while hugging him. “Wow! You've grown up a lot! You’ll be able to top your brother in no time, trust me,” said Mike.
“Thanks,” he said while blushing.
“Well I and your brother need to talk about something. Why don’t you go play together and catch up?
They nodded and then they started walking to the center of the park.
We watched them walking away and then we looked at each other.
“So… how’s life been treating you?”
“Fine... how about you?”
“Hmm… fine…”
I knew that he wasn't fine. He had joined the army at the age of twenty-five. His wife sent him a letter to tell him that things weren't working. When he returned they signed the papers of divorce, and she took charge of Rose, he could look after her on the weekend.
“So,” he said, “are you enjoying your vacations so far?”
“Yes… I've been working a lot lately… I needed a break… catching criminals is a tough work” I smiled.
“Really? And how have you been doing?”
“Not too good with the last one… he is a serial killer, he is intelligent and has already taken a lot of effort out of me. He’s a smart guy. “I’m nowhere near to catch him than when I started … at the office we call him ‘the painter’. Here is his file, take a look,” I said, handing him the file.
“Huh… gruesome… anyway… I have a proposal to make you.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
“A job. Before you refuse, listen to me. It is simple, we only need to investigate in a building, and it is well paid.”
I sighed. I was short of money so I asked him: “How much?”
He whispered a number to my ear and I sighed again. “I’m in.”
‘Click’
‘Clack’
Cold.
‘Why do I feel so cold?’ I thought.
‘Click’
‘Clack’
A strange noise awoke me and I opened my eyes, feeling the freezing floor.
“Weird,” I thought while I yawned.“I must have fallen out of the bed when I was asleep.”
‘Click’
‘Clack’
I stood up and became aware that I had already my clothes on. Astonished, I walked around the dark room and I realized that it wasn't my room. The floor was made of stone and there were paintings all over the wall.
‘Click’
‘Clack’
I jumped at the noise and I looked to my right. It was a window; it was opening and closing making a loud noise. I walked to the window and I took a look at the outside. It was raining and the sky was filled with clouds. Apparently, I was at the second or third floor of the house, because I saw a forest 30 feet bellow me. I closed the window and I turned back to the room.
I continued walking when I stumbled over something and I fell down. With a growl of pain I crawled towards the door of the room and I opened it. What I saw shocked me.
“W-where am I?”
In front of my eyes there was a gigantic dining room. In front of the room there was an enormous table, with various utensils on it. There was a candlestick in the middle of the table. The room was huge; it was about 250 feet square. The ceiling was high too, it was about 30 feet.
‘What the heck happened last night?’ I thought. ‘The last thing I remember is talking to Mike about a job…’
I tried to remember what job was, but for some reason, I couldn't. Then, I noticed something under my foot. I lifted my foot and I saw a silver metal object. I took it up and I saw what it was: the locket I had given to Johnny.
“Johnny!” I cried. “Are you in here!? Johnny!!”
‘RIARRRGGHHHH!!!’
A sudden, loud roar made me jump of fear. With my heart racing very quickly, I took out my .38 revolver and I checked if I had any ammunition. I had five bullets left in the cylinder, and around 20 bullets in my pocket. I took off the safety and I prepared myself for anything. But the roar hadn't sound in the room I was in. It had sounded in a room bellow me.
‘BANG!!!’
A man ran for his life with a gun in his hand. He was a blond man with pale skin and blue eyes.
‘BANG!!’
He looked back to the man in the black uniform, a black mask and a black helmet holding a shotgun. “Keep shooting, Fernando!” he cried.
Behind the man named Fernando, the beast that chased them kept running as if the pellets couldn't hurt it.
“It’s of no use, Nicholas!” he said. “We have to run!”
“We have to lose it!” said the man named Nicholas. They kept running through the corridor and then he saw stairs. “Here, let’s go upstairs!”
The two men climbed up the stairs and then they turned right. They kept running and then they turned left. They opened one of the doors of the hallway and then they closed it behind them.
“I think we've lost it…” said the blond man panting.
“Ya…” said the man in the black uniform, catching his breath.
They caught their breath for a few moments and then they looked at each other.
“How the hell is this happening?” said the man named Fernando, while the man he was talking to, Nicholas, sat on a chair.
“Well, let’s keep moving,” said Fernando. “We don’t know when that thing is going to strike again.”
“You are right.” Nicholas stood up and started walking across the room. He looked at the door at their right. “Let’s go”.
Fernando opened the door and walked into the room. It was an enormous dining room with a white tone in the walls, which were covered with paintings. Then he noticed that they weren't alone.
A few moments ago…
After hearing those sound I walked across the room to investigate. I started to walk across the dining when I saw something that caught my attention. It was a body lying beside a grandfather looking clock. The view of it was nauseous. If it weren't for what I had already seen in my job, I would have thrown up. The body was in a horrifying state: It had been gutted and then dismembered. He had blood splattered all over the face, which was unrecognizable. I remembered Johnny and I panicked.
“Johnny?! John! If you are near me answer me!” I cried.
The room remained quiet for a moment. Then I decided to search the body to see if I could find something useful. I put my gun in my pocket and I started searching the body. While I was at the task, the door opened suddenly and I looked up. A man in a black outfit and a black mask with a helmet entered the room. He had an emblem in his right sleeve representing an eagle fetching a snake. Above the emblem there was an inscription: G.E.O. At first he didn't notice me, but then he discovered me and aimed a shotgun at me.
“¡Manos arriba! ¡Policía! ¡No te muevas si no quieres que te llene de plomo!”
I put my hands in the air. “S-sorry. I don’t understand you!” I said in panic, the man was carrying a shotgun capable of blowing my legs off.
He stared at me for a moment. “Hands up. I’m special forces.” He walked towards me, still aiming his shotgun, which I noticed it was a Remington M870, and started searching in my pockets, taking out my gun and my badge.
“Detective Eddie Parker…” he started reading.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I said.
He looked at me and then he gave me back my badge, but he kept the gun.
I sighted with relief; he had stopped aiming me with his shotgun, though I could tell that he still didn’t trust me.
“What’s your business here?” he asked.
“I’m sorry but I can’t remember how I got here, I swear!”
“I believe you,” said a new voice that sounded behind the man with the shotgun. The new voice came from a tall, blond man with pale skin and blue eyes. “We don’t remember anything either.” He paused for a moment and then he looked at me directly in the eye. “The name’s Nicholas Samuels, I’m a psychiatric. He-he pointed at the other man, who was investigating the room- is Captain Fernando Gonzalez, a GEO operative.”
‘A GEO…’ I thought.‘Those are the special forces of Spain… What are these two doing in here?’
“What was the date of the last day you remember?” asked Nicholas.
I struggled to remember. ‘The last day I remember… It feels like it was just yesterday…I was walking with Johnny in the park…’
“It was the 25… June… I think…” I responded.
“Well… it’s been two weeks since then,” said Nicholas, looking at his watch.
“Two weeks?!”
“Quiet!” said Fernando. “I hear something…” He turned to Nicholas. “We have to go! It’s coming!”
“What?” I asked “What’s coming?”
“You don’t want to know” said Fernando. “Let´s go through that door”
We opened the door, which led to a hallway. At the end of the hallway there were some stairs which went down, we descended them quickly. The stairs led to a door. Fernando, who was leading our little group, opened the door. What we saw made us all gasp. It was a gigantic hall, even bigger than the dining room. There were some statues in the end of the hall But that wasn't what shocked us. There were bodies everywhere, some in a worse state than the one in the dining room, some dismembered, and some with strange holes all over their bodies.
‘RIARRRGGHHHH!!!’
We all heard the terrifying roar again, and we all headed to a big, wooden door, which seemed to lead to the exit.
‘PUM!!’
Something had begun to charge the door which we had crossed a minute ago. We started to push the wooden door which was heavier than we thought.
‘PUM!!’
“PUSH!” shouted Fernando. “FUCKING PUSH!”
We managed to push it enough so that we could go one at a time.
‘PUM!!’
“Go, go!” I said. First was Nicholas, followed by Fernando and then by me. Once we were outside, we started to close the door behind us.
‘CRASH!’
As we pushed I saw something that broke through the door. We closed the door before I could catch a better glimpse of the thing, but I only managed to see his wild, deadly, yellow eyes.
“Hold the door with something!” I heard Nicolas say.
Fernando stuck the door with the strongest stick he saw. We were all breathing heavily.
“Do you think it will hold?” I said.
“Yeah… I think so…” responded Fernando.
I slowly became aware of my surroundings. We were in the middle of a dark, dense, forest. It had stopped raining.
The day was coming to an end in the quiet town of ponyville, and the ponies were all in their houses, protected by the rain programmed by the pegasi. Some colts and fillies were playing under the rain while their mothers called them back to their homes.
Twilight Sparkle was reading a book which title read: ‘Ancient mythology’ in her dusty tree-library. Near the lavender colored unicorn, Spike, a green and purple baby-dragon (also Twilight’s number one assistant) cleaned the dust of the library.
“No Pinkie!” said Applejack, an orange earth pony to a pink pony with a curly mane. “We ain’t goin’ outside until the storm ends! We can’t risk ourselves just to get your darn party kit!”
“But it’s SO boring in here without anything to do,” answered back the party pony. “And I’m sure that Rarity here agrees with me!”
“Ugh…” sighed Rarity.
“You know you could read a book!” exclaimed a voice upstairs. “This is a library you know! There are tons of them!”
Pinkie Pie sighed. This wasn't what she had had in mind when coming to the library with the other girls. She had hoped to brighten up the mood of her friends, but she had forgotten her party kit somewhere in the park.
‘Silly Pinkie,’ she thought to herself. ‘If I hadn't left my party kit there my friends wouldn't look so bored. I hope it stops raining soon.’
Suddenly, they all heard somepony knocking the door.
“I’ll get it,” said Rarity standing up. She opened the door and saw an earth pony outside. The pony had a beige coat and a pigment blue mane with a rose pink streak. She had cerulean eyes and a cutie mark of three bows. She was panting as if she had ran a marathon, and she appeared to be in panic.
“I’m sorry, but is Twilight Sparkle inside this library?” she said quickly. “I really need to talk to her right now!”
“Oh, come in, she is upstairs,” said Rarity. She then called Twilight, and the named pony came downstairs.
Twilight looked at the pony and then she recognized her.
“Oh! You’re Bon Bon right? You’re Lyra’s roommate.”
“Yesysesyes,” she said quickly. “It’s about her! She’s gone to the Everfree forest! I've already contacted the guard, but they may not arrive in time! She left me this note yesterday and she hasn't come back yet!” Bon Bon gave Twilight a note, and she recognized her old classmate’s hoofwriting.
Bon Bon, I left you this note so you could know where I am right now. As you know, I did some research over a castle in the middle of the Everfree forest, ‘The house of the musicians’. I need to check out for myself if what it is written in the books about it is true. I’ll come back this evening, tomorrow morning if late. See you soon! Lyra
“Hmmmm…” said Twilight to herself. “’The house of the musicians ’… I think I've heard of it before… maybe we have a book around here about it…”
“Well…” said Bon Bon, “about a week ago, Lyra borrowed one of your books”-she took a book entitled ‘Ancient mythology ’ and gave her to Twilight-“I've read the chapter of the house of the musicians. Read it, you’ll see how it is.”
Twilight took the book, and saw that it was a copy of the book she had been reading just a minute ago. She searched for the chapter she was looking for (which was just two chapters ahead the one she was reading) and started reading:
House of the musicians In the realms of the Everfree forest lays a house with the most rare and precious instruments ever known to Equestria. It is said that the most talented musicians will find out what their destiny is there.
"Wait a moment," said Twilight. "There's a page missing on this book." She took her own book and opened on the same chapter. She was right, there was a page in the other book missing. She continued reading on her book:
However, it is also said that the house is enchanted by a spell, which traps the souls of the musicians forever in the house. Dozens of times has the Princess of the Sun tried to demolish the place, for it guards a destiny that may be worse than death, but it is protected by an ancient magic, more ancient than the princesses themselves. Because of that, it is advised to proceed with extreme caution around the house, but most important, DO NOT ENTER THE HOUSE.
“WHAT?!” exclaimed Bon Bon, “HER SOUL TRAPPED IN A HOUSE FOREVER?!”
Twilight grabbed the book with her magic. “And she hasn't read that last part!” She looked at Bon Bon with an alarmed expression on her face. “This means that she doesn't know how much in danger she really is!” She started walking in circles, thinking. “I’ll send a letter to the princess. However, the royal guard might arrive too late!” Twilight started to hyperventilate. “I don’t know girls! What should we do?”
Bon Bon almost fainted while Rarity and Applejack looked both shocked for what they had just heard. Pinkie Pie, however reacted differently.
“I think we know exactly what we should do! We have to look for her and save her from that meany enchanted house!”
“And we should bring the elements with us,” said Rarity. “Who knows if we might need them.”
Bon Bon looked at them with a gratitude expression on her face. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou so much. You don’t know how much does she mean to me.”
Twilight looked at her. “Don’t worry. We’ll find her.” She looked at the rest with a determined look on her face. “Spike, write a letter to the princess about the situation. We are going to gather the elements and we are going to rescue Lyra.”
“We should camp here tonight. It’s already getting dark and we don’t know where we are or if there’s dangerous animals in this forest. We should set up a perimeter and… eh, are you listening?” The policeman stared at me with an annoyed expression on his face. I just shrugged and continued thinking of the events of the last few hours. I took the locket out of my pocket.
‘What happened in that house? Is Johnny alright?’ I asked myself over and over.
“Hey, I’m asking you a question!” said the GEO.
“Let him breathe Fernando,” said the other man. “He’s just been through hell, like us.”
“I’m aware of that, Nicholas” said Fernando, “but this is a life-death situation. If we don’t get our shit together we might not survive till next morning.”
“I’m sorry…”
They both looked at me at the same time and I sighed. “It’s just… I found something that belongs to someone that I care of…”
“And who’s that?” asked the blond man, Nicholas.
“He’s my little brother, John… you haven’t, by any chance, seen a little boy, around the age of eleven while you were in… that place, have you?”
They looked at each other and then at me and then they shocked their heads.
“Nope,” said Nicholas. “I’m sorry. If he was there we didn’t see him.”
“Al menos no entre los cadáveres…” muttered the Spanish policeman.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” I asked him, a little bit annoyed.
“That at least he isn't among the corpses. At least there’s still a possibility that he is still alive.”
“Still… alive…” I muttered. “ I have to go back there”
I turned around and started walking in direction of the mansion, but then a hand grabbed me. “Are you crazy?” said Fernando. “The thing that was in that house will rip the flesh from your bones! Didn’t you see the other guys?”
“Guys…”
“That’s exactly why do I have to go! My brother may be running for his life!”
“Guys…”
“Look sir, we searched in the house up and down looking for survivors and we didn’t find anything! Your brother is not there anymore!”
“But-”
“GUYS!”
We looked at Nicholas, who pointed at something that we hadn’t noticed. It had the body and the head of a lion but it also had a giant pair of wings and a tail that looked like the tail of a scorpion. “It looks like we have interrupted his nap,” said Nicholas. The beast that was sleeping only a few seconds ago raised its head and gave a large yawn. Then it looked directly at us with an angry expression on its face. He stood up and gave a loud roar and then he launched at us.
I and Fernando dodged the attack, but the psychiatrist wasn’t so lucky and the beast hit him, throwing him into the air. Nicholas hit the floor with a moan, and the beast put a paw on him, preventing him from escaping.
“Hey!” said Fernando pulling out his shotgun. “What do you think you’re doing!? Let him go!” He pulled the trigger, and the pellets impacted the animal in the wing, scarcely damaging it. The creature roared loudly and charged at Fernando who dodged the attack once again. With this, the creature had let go Nicholas, who got up.
“Run!” he shouted. “I know what it is and we don’t have a chance against it!”
The three of us started to run while the animal pursued us with a newly restored rage. I wanted to defend myself, but then I realized that Fernando still had my gun.
“Hey!” I yelled, “I think it’s time that you give me my gun back, don’t you think?”
Fernando looked at me and then at the beast, and he threw my gun back at me. But just as I caught my gun, the creature charged again against us only this time I didn't dodge the attack. I fell to the ground and while I tried to recover from the impact, I felt two paws on my back, squashing me into the ground. Fernando tried to aim at the creature with his shotgun, but it used its tail to smack him to the ground. With no one to interrupt it the animal looked down at me at then prepared to bite a chunk of my flesh out of me. I tried to struggle, but it was useless, the beast was too strong. I gave up, prepared for the pain, when a loud shot was heard.
The beast roared angrily, he had a big wound on its chest, and then it looked at the direction from where it had heard the shot, only to receive another one. The creature gave a roar of pain, and then started to retreat into the depths of the dark forest.
I stood up and I saw large trail of blood in front of me. All of the sudden I started to feel sick and begun to vomit. When I stopped vomiting I looked around me and saw Nicholas looking at the blood, a sick expression on his face.
“That was a manticore…” said Nicholas in a whisper.
“A what now?” Fernando was standing next to me, puzzled. I was perplexed too.
“A manticore… A creature from the Persian mythology… Only it normally has a human’s head instead of a lion’s…” He took a pause and then he looked again at the blood. “Just… where are we? We are not in earth anymore, that’s for-” Nicholas started to have convulsions with a sick grin on his face.
“Nicholas, are you okay?” asked Fernando.
“It’s nothing; it’s just that I have a little phobia… I suffer from Hematophobia. It means that I am afraid of blood,” he said to our puzzled expressions.
“Ha, that’s strange,” I muttered. I looked back at Fernando. “Hey, thanks for saving me back there. If you hadn’t shot him I would be dead for sure.”
“What? I didn't shoot it. He knocked the gun out of my reach. I thought you had shot it!”
“What? But I didn't- Wait a second… If I didn't shoot it, and you didn't shoot it, then who-”
“Maybe we should ask him” said Nicholas pointing at a man who was aiming a rifle at us. We hadn't heard him sneak in. “Put your hands in the air,” he said in a voice I knew too well.
A young boy walked down the road quickly, along him walked his mother, a tall and beautiful woman who carried his son’s heavy backpack, which weighted too much for the little boy. It was the boy’s first day at school and anyone could tell how nervous he looked.
“So,” asked his mother, “how are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” lied the boy, forcing a smile on his face. The woman noticed that and stopped walking. The boy stopped too, looking at his mother apprehensively. The boy’s mother sighed, knowing what was happening.
“Look Eddie,” she said warmly, “it’s going to be fine. You just have to be yourself.”
“But that’s of what I’m afraid of, mommy,” said the boy, Eddie, who was shy by nature, “What if they don’t like me?”
“Eddie, you are a wonderful child and I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t like you. I’m sure that you’ll make many friends.”
“Yeah, I hope so…” sighed Eddie.
“Alright. We are almost there,” said the woman upon seeing the building that was the school.
They walked two minutes more and they arrived at the building. They entered the building and then the mother gave the boy his backpack.
“Are you sure that you can carry on with that backpack?” said Eddie’s mother worried.
“I can carry it, don’t worry mom.”
“Okay sweetie. Good luck in your first day of school.”
Eddie’s mother left the building and the boy was left on his own. Kids of his age where running through the hall, all of them with a mix of excitement and insecurity written on their faces. Eddie walked across the hall, barely able to carry his heavy backpack. Three kids watched him carrying the backpack struggling and laughed maliciously.
Eddie continued walking until he reached the end of the hall. His class was in the second floor, so he took the stairs at the end of the hall. But then he found that he couldn't lift his backpack, it was too heavy for him. He looked over the hall to see If someone could help him, but he only found the three kids, still laughing at his weakness. He was about to shatter when something poked his shoulder.
“Do you need any help with that?” asked another boy of his age. He was taller than Eddie and seemed stronger.
“S-sure,” answered Eddie relieved. The two kids managed to carry the heavy backpack up to the second floor, working together. When they got to the second floor, they stared at each other, not knowing what to say.
“Thank you,” said Eddie after a while. The other boy smiled and said: “Hey, no problem. It looked like you needed help with that backpack and those guys were laughing at you.”
Eddie blushed ashamed and the boy tried to make up for his mistake.
“Oh, don’t mind those kids; that backpack was heavy after all”
“Yeah, don’t worry, I won’t mind them.”
They stayed a few more moments silent, and then the other boy broke the ice.
“So… what’s your class?”
“Huh? Oh it’s 1-B, I think.”
“Really? That’s my class too!”
“Really?” said Eddie, smiling. He normally had trouble when meeting new people, but this boy was different. He was friendly and agreeable and that was something that he didn't find in a person too often.
“Yeah! Let’s go!”
He began to walk towards the class when he stopped and turned back.
“Hey, I didn't catch your name!”
“Oh… I’m Eddie.”
“Well nice to meet you Eddie. I’m Michael, but you can call me Mike,” he said enthusiastically.
A bell started to ring and all the pupils started to enter their classes.
“Okay. The class begins now, I think. Let’s go,” said Mike.
And so, Eddie entered the class with his new friend…
“Mike?” I said, confused of seeing my best friend there, in the middle of this bizarre situation. He looked terrible, he had all his clothes torn up and had scratches all over his face and body. He also had a big bruise on his left cheek.
“Eddie?” he answered, also confused. Fernando took advantage of the distraction and aimed his gun at my friend.
“Drop it!” he shouted at Mike. Instead, he aimed at Fernando, with a determined grin on his face.
“I don’t think so. Not until I find out what the hell is happening here.”
“Wait,” interrupted Nicholas, “you don’t remember how you got here either?”
Mike looked at Nicholas, surprised. “What? I’m not the only one who doesn't know what’s happening here?” He paused thinking about what he had heard. “So… you come from the mansion with the corpses too?”
Fernando nodded and put the gun down. “Well… It looks like you two know each other already.”- He looked at me and then back at him-“I’m Captain Fernando González, from the GEOS.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen that,” responded Mike. “Sergeant Michael Anderson, from the US army… More exactly ex-sergeant. I’m not in the army anymore.”
We all stared at Nicholas, who introduced himself. “Dr. Nicholas Samuels. I’m a psychiatrist.”
We stayed a moment in silent, not knowing what to do.
“Okay people,” said Fernando, “now that we know each other we should try to figure where are we going to camp this night."
“Oh, I saw a strange old house not a long time ago,” said Mike. “It had a weird symbol on the roof, like a music note or something. Maybe we should pass the night there.”
“Okay,” I said, starting to get tired. “To the house with the music note it is. I’m starting to feel tired.”
They all nodded and we started to walk, Mike taking the lead.
Three figures watched the group leave the place. They had seen how they had beaten the manticore, and they didn’t know what this could represent for their plan.
“Did you see how they beat that manticore?” said a green pegasus mare, astonished.
“Yeah, they could mean trouble,” said a big light brown earth pony in a deep voice. “We have to inform the boss.”
“Or we could eliminate them ourselves,” answered back the pegasus, wielding a wing blade.
“Don’t you even think of that, featherbrain,” said a blue unicorn with a white mane. “Didn't you see the technology that they used? We could use that in our plan, but we would have to take their weapons silently. Light Sand is right, we have to inform the boss. He’ll know what to do with the weapons.”
“Maybe… We could use their weapons in our little plan,” said the earth pony smiling slyly.
“Hmmm… Whatever. Let’s get out of this forest and inform the boss. He’ll know what to do,” said the pegasus.
They all started to walk away. The unicorn smiled devilishly.
“Ponyville… Your time is coming.”
Chapter 3: House of the Musicians
The trees became closer with each other as we approached the house that Mike had told us about. The night had taken all over the forest, so we had gotten closer to avoid getting separated. We didn't know what dangers could offer the forest apart from manticores, so getting divided could mean a certain death.
Mike and I walked in front while Nicholas and Fernando covered our backs in case we found more of those mythological monsters.
“Are we getting any nearer?” asked Fernando. “This forest creeps me out.”
A chilling howl broke the silence of the forest and the four of us stopped dead.
“T-There are wolves in this forest too?” said Nicholas starting sweat.
“Hmm… not too long ago I saw something that looked like a wolf rounding in another section of this forest…” said Mike a little bit to himself.
“What do you mean ‘it looked like a wolf’?” I asked worried about the fact that maybe manticores wouldn’t be the only mythological creatures that we’d find after all.
“Well… It was dark so I couldn’t see well… What I do know is that it was bigger… and its eyes were glowing.”
“Glowing?” asked Nicholas.
“Yeah… they were glowing bright green.”
“We should speed up,” said Fernando holding tighter his shotgun. “You, how much long?”
Mike took off his glasses to clean them and then he put them on, talking with himself.
“Okay… I turned right… and then I saw that wolf…”
“Don’t tell me you are lost?!” asked Nicholas starting to hyperventilate.
“Shhht! Be quiet!” I said whispering.
“Sorry.”
“I think I know the way.”
We all stared at Mike, who took the lead again with a grin on his face. We followed him to a new section of the forest and as we advanced, it started to get foggy. “Get closer.” I heard Fernando say, and then it appeared in front of us. An enormous house about the size of the mansion I had awoken in, only this house looked less grim than the other one. It had another characteristic: the house had a garden, filled with lots of broken musical instruments; shattered violins, wrecked pianos, harps bent in a pile of useless metal, and other instruments I hadn't heard of. On top of the house there was the musical note Mike had told us about. On front of the house it read with golden letters: ‘Triumph awaits for the worthy musicians, their souls will become music’. Before I could prevent him, Mike opened the door of the house, which was surprisingly unlocked. As we followed him into the house, the sound of a melody came to our ears. But it wasn't a sweet melody. The music was dark and it sounded like desperation, hopelessness and pain. The music bored into our ears and I started to get shivers.
“Pierrot Lunaire…” muttered Nicholas, “composed by Arnold Shoenberg…”
“W-What? Who is playing this?” said Fernando examining the interior of the house.
We were standing in a hall, on our left side and our right side there were a pair of stairs leading to a second floor. In front of us there was a big wooden door. The walls were decorated with all sorts of paintings, with all sorts of people carrying instruments. Only they weren't people. The beings in the paintings looked like some sort of horses, but they were more little and multicolored.
“What are these creatures…? Horses?” I asked with a certain amount of curiosity.
“They seem more like some type of cartoonish ponies, if you ask me…” said Nicholas. He continued studying the paintings. “They have expressive faces… They almost seem like human expressions,” he turned back to us, “and they all have one expression on their faces… sorrow.”
“Great, let’s sleep in the house with the creepy music and the disturbing paintings Mike!”
“Heh, well Eddie, I-”
“Don’t worry, I was just joking. It’s better than sleeping outside, with the monsters.”
“I don’t get it,” said Fernando still examining the place, “Why does this place seem abandoned if there is someone playing music in some part of the house?”
“Bites me,” I said. Sleepiness started to take over me, and I gave a large yawn, which was followed with a bunch of collective yawns. We all looked at each other for a moment and then we started to laugh, all of us except Fernando. I didn't know if he had yawned because he still had that mask on his face, but he sure didn't laugh.
“I think that we’re all tired,” he said, and we nodded. “I think that we should get some rest before doing some exploration. I’ll stay on guard just in case something happens.”
“Really?” said Nicholas with another yawn. “Aren't you tired?”
“Just a little bit. Now, come on, you have to rest.”
I did feel really tired, so I took a spot in the hall and I lied down there. Mike and Nicholas did the same thing, while Fernando just sat in a corner, near of us. Tired as I was, it didn't take too much time before I fell into a deep sleep, the music still sounding in my ears…
I walked across a corridor, not knowing where I was exactly. The walls and the color of the ceiling, which was blue, seemed too familiar, but I couldn't recognize where had I seen it.
At the end of the corridor, a blue door opened, showing a place that I didn't recognize either. It was a big room that had a blue tone in it, but the light coming from the ceiling of the room was too bright for me to see anything clearly.
“Eddie!”
I heard a voice calling me, but it didn't sound like it was inside the room.
“Eddie!”
The second time I heard the voice, I recognized it, it was my brother the one who was calling me. I tried to call his name, but I couldn't speak.
“Eddie!”
I decided to follow the voice, walking across the room blindly with an arm covering my eyes. Strangely, I didn’t collide against anything until I reached the brown door from where the voice of my brother was calling me. I stared at the door hesitantly, I didn't know what I would find when I opened it. Slowly, I opened the door, and then I gave a jump, walking a few steps back and regretting my decision instantly. Inside the door was what it looked like a big, empty grey room, with red spots in the walls. But it wasn't empty. There was someone laying at the end of the room, looking at me.
“Eddie…”
Terrified of what I could see, I looked at any direction but at the laying person on the ground and my glance ended up on a broken mirror. But the reflection of the mirror didn't show me. It was a deformed face, but before I could see any more details, someone tapped me on my shoulder.
“Sister, are you awake!?”
After a hard day of work dealing with nobleponies and unhappy citizens that talked about the ‘horrendous’ problems that they had to deal with, Princess Celestia had gone to sleep early. She had almost entered the state of slumber when her sister, Princess Luna, had burst into her room.
“I was almost going to bed, Lulu. What is your concern?” she asked with an irritated tone in her voice.
“There is no time for such things as sleep,” said Princess Luna with an urgent tone on her voice. “I was watching over the dreams of our subjects, as always, when I found out a quite disturbing dream!”
Princess Luna explained quickly the dream and its contents, remarking on the grey room with the red spots of what she had assumed it was blood.
“And who of our subjects could have such a disturbing dream?” asked Princess Celestia, now worried.
“That is the thing, my sister; it was not one of our subjects,” responded Luna.
“What do you mean, ‘not one of our subjects’?”
“It is an enemy, long before our time, which was believed to be extinct.”
“What kind of enemy?” asked Princess Celestia now intrigued.
“I believe they were called… the Homo species,” said Luna with a hint of doubt.
“The Homo species? They are here? We need to find them before it is too late! Where was this creature dreaming?”
“It was inside a house, at the north of Everfree. The house was big and had broken instruments laying on the gardens,” said Princess Luna thoughtfully.
“I see… I think I know where that place is… Luna, gather your guard, and-”
“But Celly,” interrupted Princess Luna, “There is another thing. Your student sent you a letter, but it seems that you were too busy to notice it.”
Princess Luna gave the letter to her sister, who opened it with a curiosity that turned to shock as she kept reading. When she finished reading, she threw the letter away and galloped to the exit of her room.
‘The Bearers of the Elements … Twilight and her friends… They don’t know what they are dealing with!’
I woke up gasping and sweating, slowly getting used with my surroundings. It took me some time to realize that the last few moments had been a nightmare, but I was still shocked. I hadn't had such a realistic dream ever in my life. I stayed a few moments sitting on the cold floor, thinking about the dream. The music was still sounding so at first I didn't notice the sobbing coming out of someone a few meters away from me. I turned my head and I saw Fernando sleeping, and beside him, Nicholas was crying.
“Hey, are you okay?” I asked quietly.
Nicholas turned his head at me quickly stopping his sobbing instantly.
“No, I’m fine, I guess I just feel a little bit homesick,”- he looked at Fernando- who was now sleeping-“The big guy was pretty tired, so I told him to take a nap, that I wasn't tired anyways…” he then stared at me, talking with a restored calm. “And I am still not tired… Why are you awake?”
“A nightmare… involving my brother… and in that dream… he was…”
I couldn't finish the sentence, not knowing what I would do if I found out that he was dead.
“Don’t worry… I’m sure he’s fine…” He didn't look too convinced. “By the way, you can call me Nick if you want. That’s what my friends call me.”
I nodded and the he continued talking.
“Tell me about your brother… and about your friend there too…” He pointed a finger at Mike, who was sleeping in one corner of the room.
“Okay… My little brother…” I took the locket that had a picture of my family in it and I showed it to Nicholas pointing Johnny with a finger. “That’s him. And that one is my friend… Mike. We've been through a lot together, I know him since we were kids…”
“That’s… nice. It reminds me of my own family…”
“Tell me about them,” I asked with an amount of curiosity.
“Well… I have a brother… and a sister… It’s been ages since I last saw them…”
“And what about Fernando? Did you know him?”
“Him? Nah… I met him in that house… But he is a good guy. He even gave me a gun to protect myself from that thing that chased us around the house.”
“Speaking of which,” I said remembering the yellow eyes, “What was that?”
“I don’t know… All I know is that if I didn't run on the weekend I’d be dead for sure.”
“Really? Well we don’t have much with that…”
We stayed a few minutes silent and then I continued the conversation.
“Your accent doesn't sound from Spain… Where are you from?”
“From anywhere really… My family used to travel a lot… I was born in Italy, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“And why did you come to-”
I was interrupted by a sound that came from my back. I turned my back and I found that the wooden door had opened.
“What the hell?” I stood up and Nicholas did the same thing. The door led to a dark corridor, with even more drawings on the walls. Nicholas started to walk towards the corridor; his face looked shocked as he gave a step, and then another step, his eyes fixed at the end of the corridor.
“Nicholas… Nick!” I whispered him to get his attention, unsuccessfully. He still walked towards the end of the corridor. When he reached the end, he opened a door that wasn't easy to see as it was merged with the wall, hidden at the eyes of any man. I decided to follow him before something happened, going through the corridor and entering the room that the camouflaged door led into.
The room was just as grim as the hall of the house, and at the center of the room there was a painting laying aside a grand piano. The painting showed a mint green little horse, but this creature had a horn on its head, meaning that it was a unicorn. The painting wasn't finished though. The color of the eyes and a leg were missing.
Sitting on a seat, someone was playing the piano. Or rather, something.
“It looks like the unicorn of the painting,” muttered Nicholas.
I turned back to Nicholas, who seemed to be himself again.
“Hey! What happened before?” I asked a bit annoyed.
“What? I don’t know…” said Nicholas, feeling lost.
“Never mind…” I looked back at the unicorn; it seemed that we had found who was playing the music. The creature was like Nicholas had been a few moments ago. Its golden eyes were fixated to the piano, and she was playing it without showing any kind of expression, only those golden eyes, wide opened.
“Look at it…” muttered Nicholas. “We have to do something. Look,”-he pointed at the hooves of the creature-“its hooves look terrible.”
“How many long has it been playing it?”
“I don’t know…but she looks ill. We need to do something. Fast.”
Nicholas tried to shake the creature, but it served of no avail. We tried to take the hooves ‘how could it play the piano with hooves?’ off the piano, but they still returned to the keyboard.
“Wait here.”Nicholas left the room and returned with one of the broken instruments, a viola.
“Wait, what are you going to-?”
Nicholas smashed the broken instrument on the piano, and a crack appeared on the black instrument. He continued smashing the viola on the piano until the only remains were a pile of shattered black material.
The unicorn remained looking expressionless, but then its eyes started moving in a groggily way and then she fell to the ground, passing out.
“Hey! What’s going on here?!”
I turned back to see Fernando followed by Mike, who had a sleepy face.
“Why did you explore the house without waking us? And why- what is that?!”
Fernando pointed at the unicorn with his finger, who was still laying on the floor.
“That?” said Nick. “Well, I think that was the creature that was playing the music. But it looked like it was being forced to do so. The poor thing is at a very bad state. She-”
“She?” asked Fernando.
“I think that she is a female. Anyways, I-”
From the corner of the eye, I saw that the female unicorn was regaining consciousness, touching her head with a hoof.
“Ehh… Nick? I think that your unicorn is waking up.”
Nicholas turned back getting closer at the unicorn. “Don’t worry, girl… It’s all over…” he muttered.
The unicorn looked up and her eyes opened wide, staring in shock for a moment. Then she gave a loud scream.
“AHHHHHHH!!!”
“What the-?”
“Get away from me! Get away from me!”
“Wha- It talks?!”
“This is crazy…”
In all the confusion the unicorn tried to get away, but she was blocked by Fernando, who grabbed her by the tail, not letting her go.
“Let me go! Let me go!”
“Not till be get some answers! What are you, and where are we!”
“Please don’t hurt me! Please don’t-!”
“Then answer!”
Nicholas tried to intervene.
“Fernando I think that you are being too rough… Maybe you could-”
“Shut up boy! I’m handling this the right way!”
“Hey dude, why don’t you try to chill out a little and-”
Fernando, still grabbing the unicorn, turned his head at Mike. “Listen ‘dude’, I’m trying to get us out of here, so why don’t you go to a corner while I do all the work?”
Mike’s expression turned to one of anger, and he gave a few steps towards Fernando, looking him at the face hidden by the mask. “No. I’m not going to go to a corner while you do all the work. And that is because I don’t take orders from you. So why don’t you let go of that poor thing before something bad happens?
“Why you-!”
“Shut up!” Everyone turned their heads to me, and I could almost feel Fernando spitting venom with his eyes from behind the mask. “Just… shut up… They are right, Fernando… You should let Nick handle the questions.”
Fernando stayed silent for a moment and then he let go off the unicorn’s tail. “Alright… You do the interrogation… But if it does something it is all your fault.”
“I’ll live with that,” muttered Mike.
“Alright then…” Nicholas approached the small creature, which was shaking, looking at her tail twitching. When he approached closer to her, she looked up apprehensively.
“Please don’t hurt me…”
She said that while a tear rolled from her eye. Nick stopped a few steps away from her, and then he crouched, putting his head at the level of the unicorn’s. “It’s all right. We are not here to hurt you. We just want to ask you some questions.”
“Yes. I promise. Now, first of all, we wanted to know what are you, isn't that right Fernando?” He looked at Fernando, who just nodded.
“W-Well I’m a pony of course! What are you?”
“We are asking the questions here!”
“Fernando… Remember what we said? Stay quiet please.”
Fernando was about to say something, but then he kept it for himself.
“Okay… What’s your name?”
“My name? I don’t know if I should- Wait a moment… How did I get here? Bon Bon… The house… My…”
“We found you playing the piano, over there,” I pointed at the remains of the piano, and the pony stared at them. “You were playing the piano, but I don’t think that you were doing it by your own will, right?”
“I got here… Because I wanted to discover if I would be anything as a musician… If I could get better… But then I stepped into the house… And I couldn't control myself! It was as if someone was controlling me like a marionette… The music… It was the music I think… It forced me to play music… and then… I don’t know… It felt like going to sleep…”
We all stayed a moment silent, and then I gave a glimpse at the painting. But there was not painting. Only a frame and a blank piece of sheet.
“The painting… It’s gone! The drawing is gone!”
“What…?” Nicholas looked at the painting and then at the pony, and then his face illuminated. “Wow… I think that somehow, you were fading into the painting…”
We all looked at Nicholas, confused. “What?” said Fernando “That’s not possible! That’s bullshit!”
“So we are in a place where mythological creatures like manticores and unicorns exist and that is hard to believe?” said Mike.
“That means that you saved me… right?”
We all looked at the unicorn who was now looking us with an amazed expression on her face.
“You were the ones who destroyed that piano… right?”
Nicholas nodded. “Yes, I did that.”
The pony stayed silent another moment and then she stood up, giving Nicholas a hug.
“Thank you so much! If it weren't for you, I would have been trapped here forever for my stupidity!”
Nicholas stayed paralyzed a moment and the he let a smile appear on his face. “Err… You’re welcome. Now… Will you tell us your name?”
“Of course! I’m Lyra! Lyra Heartstrings!”
“Lyra… like the tattoo on your flank.”
“What? Oh, you mean my Cutie Mark! Anyway, who are you?"
“Oh, I’m Nick,” he pointed at us with his finger while he told her our names, “He is Eddie, the one with the glasses is Mike and the grumpy one is Fernando. We are humans.”
We all waved our hand at Lyra except Fernando, who just put his back against the wall with his arms crossed.
“So… Now that that’s out of the way, why don’t you tell us-?"
He was interrupted by the sound of someone opening a door. We all turned our heads to see another pony, this one blue with wings and a rainbow-colored mane, staring at us with its magenta eyes with a menacing glance.
Author's Note
Here is a link to the music that sounds in the house. Beware, you might not like it...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veUJxETj7-c