Chapter III: By the Pricking

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"Oh yeah..." the person seemed awkwardly flustered, and Nicolas could feel that they were blushing. Moving slowly, the person began to remove their mask, lifting up their painted arm to do so. Behind the mask was a teenager, no older than eighteen, with earthy skin and curly dark hair. His light brown eyes shifted warmly to Nicolas, who watched him hold out his skinny, painted hand. "I'm Theo Thompson," Theo spoke warmly and Nicolas shook his hand.

"I'm Nicolas Tsukino," Nicolas replied, letting go of Theo's hand. Theo smiled and nodded, and then proceeded to lead Nicolas over to the cauldron, where both of them pushed the cauldron out of the way. "Wouldn't it have been easier to move the cauldron with magic?" Nicolas pondered to Theo.

"Probably," was the reply Nicolas received, and when Nicolas looked over to Theo, he saw the same blushing that had consumed him with embarrassment before. "Anyway, I just want to pack us a few things for the journey."

"Oh..." Nicolas gently sighed. "Is it... going to take long? The journey, I mean." Theo bent down and lifted up a hatch in the floor that led into a dimly lit staircase, where Nicolas could hear the fluttering screeches of bats.

"We should be there in a few hours, I think. We'll probably arrive at the Fairy Circle Major about... Maybe 5 hours from now? It's not too bad." Theo muttered the words in a jumbled manner, focused on getting the massive trapdoor fully open. Looking up at Nicolas, Theo smiled and examined him inquisitively. "Follow me," Theo motioned and they both began the trek down the winding passage.

***

Lit by candles that seemed to rest on the air, Nicolas struggled to see in the dim lighting, and nearly tripped following Theo down the passage. Stopping at various nooks in the walls, Theo picked up various things, mainly flashlights, a map, and a compass. After strolling down the steps into the deep darkness, the two finally reached the bottom, where Theo flicked on a light, illuminating the entire tall, circular tower they had come down. To Nicolas it spanned what seemed like miles, though he knew it couldn't possibly be that long.

The electricity seemed out of place in the crypt-like housing, providing the synthetic illumination that Nicolas associated more commonly with modern buildings. Before the two was a crimson door the color of a cherry. Not those dark red ones, but the maraschino cherries that are a bright, sweet red. When they reached the door, Theo pulled out a key that hung on a necklace around his neck. One end of the key was decorated like a sugar skull, and the golden key gleamed dimly under the electric lights.

"La Catrina gave me this key," Theo explained as he unlocked the door. "It can open any locked door." The explanation proved true as the door swung open, and the two entered the hall. Doors lined either side of the hall, and as Nicolas followed, the hall seemed to grow longer and longer. Finally, Theo entered one of the doors and the two found themselves in a large storage room with what seemed like an infinite amount of food and other things. The food ranged from fish, to super-market cereals, to exotic fruits, and everything in between. Taking a duffel bag off of a shelf, Theo shoved the map, compass, and flashlights into the bag and then began to pick up various foods off of the shelves, and miraculously they all seemed to fit. Nicolas reasoned that the bag must have some sort of 'Mary Poppins' type enchantment to it.

Theo moved onward, and Nicolas followed, until they reached a large expanse of glass containers of alcoholic beverages. Theo reached a bottle of champagne, a bottle of whiskey, and a bottle of vodka off of the shelf, opening the whiskey as he took it down. Shoving the other two into his bag, Theo took a swig of whiskey and sighed shrewdly, holding it out to Nicolas.

"You want some?" Theo asked, and against his better judgment opposed to underage drinking, Nicolas took a swig also. Using this as a chance to figure out the mysteriously friendly boy, Nicolas mustered up the courage to ask a question.

"Who were you talking to when I arrived?" Nicolas inquired, acting as an inquisitor of small-talky questions. Theo sighed and put the whiskey in the duffel bag as well, turning to look at Nicolas.

"I was talking to my sister," Theo mumbled, and then raised his voice back to his typical level of speaking. "I usually talk to her when my mother is out in the wood. I haven't seen her in person in two years."

"Why?"

Turning around, Theo looked at Nicolas and Nicolas looked into Theo's eyes; they were growing somber and darker, changing from the original warm earth color they were before to a dark brown that mimicked the appearance of wet soil. "Clary and our mom got into a fight, and our mom banished her to some town far away from here," Theo began to grab more things and put them into the duffel bag, still speaking as he did so. "She was telling me about some sort of zombie thing going on in the town, and she told me that one of my tarot card decks had been sold to some voodoo witch," Theo paused the conversation and stuck a loaf of bread into the bag. "I painted those tarot cards a while ago..." Theo then turned his back to the shelf and slid down on the supporting beam, sitting crouched on the floor, not looking up to Nicolas. "I hope she'll be okay..."

After a few seconds, Nicolas perked up and his brown eyes were wary of something, his ears pointed like a bat's.

"Did you hear that?" He pondered rhetorically, not waiting or asking for an answer from Nicolas. Nicolas, now also alerted, watched Theo as he darted back into the hall. Following him closely, Nicolas could here faint footsteps from above, and realized that it was probably Theo's mom. Theo seemed panicked as he looked up into the long tower, and then turned back and pushed Nicolas back through the hall. They entered another door, which when illuminated revealed a small room for a pet bat named Ra. Ra screeched meekly when they entered, as she had been sleeping previously, though Theo explained (and somehow the bat understood) their reason for entering. "Stay here until I get you," Theo cautioned, and Nicolas quietly obeyed.

***

When she arrived, Matilda had instantly picked up on another aura in the vicinity of her home; thankfully it seemed to be benevolent. Brushing her wiry, black hair out of her face, she peered in the doorway through her glasses and found the cauldron-passage opened. Brushing her black cloak behind her, Matilda swept elegantly into the room and dropped down the passage, speeding quickly through the steps, holding her paper bag from the Ashlands' market.

At the bottom of the passage she could see her son staring up, and she quickly adjusted her demeanor in order to maintain a calm appearance. Theo explained how he accidently left the cauldron open; he then apologized and promised to be more cautious next time.

"It's fine, my dear, just try your best to remember to do so next time," Matilda hugged her child (who was as tall as she was), and watched as he smiled sheepishly and went into Ra's room. Matilda stood her ground, contemplating the intentions of the creature that was inside the house with him.

Theo came out of the room a few seconds later with a small bat clinging to one shoulder and a duffel bag around his other. Taking his mask from its upward position, Theo disguised his face from the light of the candles and light bulbs.

"I'm taking Ra for a walk in the woods," Theo explained behind the mask. "We're going for a picnic." Motioning toward the duffel bag, Matilda nodded and adjusted her wide, round glasses. She knew that his intentions were just as masked as his face, but she knew it was best not to stop him now; she didn't want a repeat of what happened with Clary.

"Well, be careful," Matilda whispered in response, taking close watch of the bat.

"I will."

And Theo sped up the stairs with the bat, unaware of Matilda following close behind.

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