Chapter 13: The castle at last.

My eyes widened as I looked into the barrel of a 9mm Sig Sauer. I could feel my heart beating in my throat, and Dylan's hand gripped mine with surprising strength. It was Allie who recovered first.
"Well Roy, are you going to kill all of us, or just the unimportant ones?" Her question took him off his guard and it was apparent he didn't know what he was going to do. Pulling a gun had obviously been a reflex action.
"I wouldn't kill anyone" he said but hastily added "Unless you force me to."
His eyes searched our faces.
"We've obviously come to an impasse" I stated.
"An 'Impasse'?" Roy repeated
An idea was begining to hatch in my mind. Forming my sentence carefully I said "Yeah, an impasse is where we can't come to a decision on anything, and the only thing we agree on is to disagree." Dylan's hand squeezed mine, she'd caught on. Letting go of my hand she stepped forward, blocking Roy's view of me "What are you going to do to us? Because I'm going to leave this room in five seconds" she stated, very matter-of-factly. It must have been Roy's day for being confused. He began to reply, but Dylans words seemed to sink in.
"Huh?!" His face showed the bewilderment he obviously felt. That was all the time I needed.
While Dylan had been distracting him, I had taken three steps back.
"Now!" I shouted.
Quick as a cat Dylan side stepped and I sprang forward on top of a surprised Roy. While I had the element of surprise at first, he  recovered quickly from the shock, and now had the element of size. Just as he was about to punch my face with his massive fist, a shot rang out. Tarra was standing above us, gun in hand "Get up! You..." she said pointing the gun at Roy. "Turn around and face the wall! "I'd like to say I'm sorry to have to do this but considering that you'd have killed us, I can't."
There was a resounding thud from the gun butt meeting the back of Roy's head.

Tarra turned to Dylan and I "What was all that back there, with the impasse, and I'm leaving in five seconds?" she asked
"A little code we set up when we were back in the lab. One of the guards used to say  "Agree to disagree" all the time. So when we were planning to escape the first time, that was the code phrase we came up with. It meant I was suppose to distract the guard, and Rhys would take him down" Dylan explained.

Turning to me, Dylan smiled "Quick thinking. For a minute there I was afraid we were all going to die." I let out a nervous chuckle "We can't have that, now can we?"
Tarra expressed the question that was on all of our minds "What do we do with him?" motioning towards Roy. "We can't take him with us."
"Let's lock him in the bathroom" Allie suggested

We carried him into the bathroom, and I hooked a chair underneath the doorknob.

********************************

We grabbed our things and practically ran out of the hotel and into the car below. We took off heading north out of town at a steady sixty miles an hour. Once we hit the "open road" Tarra hurried our speed up to eighty five.

"Why are we going so fast?" Dylan asked.

"Because I don't know how long that bathroom 'cell' is going to hold Roy, he's stronger than he looks. And I want to get to the old Castle before MacNeil knows we got away" Tarra replied.

Rhys was riding shotgun next to Tarra, and Dylan and I were in the back. The two of them were catching up, Dylan was sleeping, and I was thinking about our situation. The people at the lab were after us so they could kill Tarra and I, and recapture Rhys and Dylan; MacNeil was trying to settle an old score with the remaining Magman's; And my parents were back in California, prossibly in trouble. "When can I call my parents?" I asked .

Tarra let out a sigh "You can't. Not until this is over." After a moment she continued "But I give you my word, they are safe and NOTHING is going to happen to them. I promise." The sincerity in her voice was enough for me. But I was still curious "How can you be so sure?"

"I have some friends looking after your parents, and they know you're safe. Rhys before you ask me, the Taylor's are safe as well." She smiled.

"I don't know about anyone else, but I'm starving." The opinion was unanimous. We pulled off the road at a little Pub prompting Dylan to wake up. After we ordered, Rhys pulled out the book from his jacket pocket. Laying it on the table we read it til the food arrived.

"It looks like Rhys has to face the east and say the first part of the ritual, and then face the west and say the rest. But what are we going to do about MacNeil?" I asked. There was a long silence. While we ate we thought about our problem. Saying the ritual at the old castle would stop the lunatics from the lab, but that wouldn't stop MacNeil. But we had to stop him! There were no other options. "Excuse me, I'm gonna pay the bill. Stay together till I come back" said Tarra. She got up from the table and walked past the bar to the register. We chatted amongst ourselves, til Tarra came back a few minutes later. "We should get on the road, so we can get to the Castle before dark."

A few minutes later we pulled out of the parking lot, and were on our way once more. The castle was only half an hour away, but it seemed to take forever to get there. Everyone was excited and nervous, Dylan couldn't stop talking about what she would do when she was finally free "I've got a Grandmother in England that I'm going to go live with. What are you going to do when you're free Rhys?"

 

*********************************************

 





That was the question wasn't it. I'd been so busy thinking about freedom I hadn't given any thought about what I was going to do when I got it. I had always thought I'd find a family to live with; the Taylor's probably wouldn't want me back. I wasn't sure if Tarra would want me to live with her either. After all who would  want a "freak" who has electric superpowers as a child?!
"Rhys?" It was Dylan
"Huh?"
"I asked what you were going to do when you're finally free from all this?"
"I haven't really had time to think about it, I'm not sure" I replied.
After a few minutes Tarra broke the silence "When we were back at the Pub I made a few phone calls to some....." she hesitated as she tried to find the right word "Contacts. I didn't know if it would be wise to tell you or not, but I figure you deserve to know what we're getting into. My contacts told me that our Mr. MacNeil has a rap sheet a mile long, including assault, fraud, theft......." she paused again "And attempted murder."

We pulled onto the dirt road that lead to the castle. The weather had suddenly turned ominous and cold. The rain had started as a light drizzle, but was growing stronger by the second. It was like a scene from a corny horror film. As we pulled up to the castle, there was a flash of lightening that was followed by a loud *BOOM* of thunder.
"Well, the bright side is, we know it can't get any creepier" Tarra said through a sarcastic smile.
We got out of the car and ran for the cover of the castle archway. We stood there shivering, when Allie let out a gasp of shock and fright. Following her gaze, we  couldn't believe our eyes. In the second story window was a person, clothed in all white.............and they were GLOWING!