The Underground Palace

Chapter Two - Lord Baker Has Been Defeated

An invisible thread of confusion and fear wrapped itself around the children's hearts. 

'Go, Glen!  Now!' shouted Linda, then she glanced at Alex and added, 'I'm sorry.'  Many questions buzzed around Glen's head but he forced them away.  There was no point in worrying about them now, everything was going to be revealed in due time.  He helped Alex to his feet and turned back to the hallway.

'Those men are bad, bad, bad,' cried Alex.  Glen quickly glanced at the front door that continued to terrifyingly shudder under every bang.

'Come on!' yelled Glen, ignoring his cousin's words and he pulled Alex up the staircase, two steps at a time.  Coincidence or not, Linda had replaced that front door only a month ago, but as the children thought back, Linda actually had a habit of replacing the front door every six months.

The children ran as fast as they could and remembering Linda's words, they stopped at every door on the landing and closed them shut.  Glen briefly wondered if Natasha knew who these men were and why they were here.  Perhaps he could call her.

'Glen,' moaned Alex, and tugged at his hand. 'Hurry!' she yelled.  Alex pulled Glen up the attic stairs into his bedroom and once in, the two children quickly pulled the ladder stairs up and slid the lock across.

The banging ... it had stopped.  Everything was silent.  Dead quiet.  Then the children realised why - the men had entered the house.

'Ready or not, here we come,' laughed a cold cruel voice.  It was a saying the two children had heard many times before but this time it made their hearts drop to their stomach.

'Stay away from my son you evil wretched bastards,' screamed Linda.  There was a loud bang, a scream, then silence.  Glen lurched forward but Alex held him back. 

'Glen, no!' Alex warned him. 

'But she's my mum!'  Downstairs, a voice of one of the men echoed through the floorboards.

'You ain't got nowhere to hide!'  Alex felt like crying.

Cupboards slammed open, footsteps banged against the stairs floorboards, a shower curtain ripped open, a bed was tipped upside down.

'We've got to move,' hissed Alex.  Glen glanced around his bedroom and saw the window.  He jumped to his feet and stared outside.  It was the only exit.

Glen pushed the window open as far as it would go and stared at the two back vans.

'Why are they here?' he asked Alex.

'I don't know, I can just feel they're really bad.'  Glen leapt onto the window frame and felt the icy cold air wash over him; it immediately filled his body with renewed energy.

'Whatever's going to happen, we'll stick together right?' Alex begged.  Glen stopped what he was doing and turned to his terrified cousin, he gave a small smile and nodded.

'Always.'  Downstairs the sound of objects being chucked and voices shouting and yelling could be heard then all of a sudden one voice yelled louder than the others.

'The attic you fools!'

Bang!

Glen and Alex watched the tiny attic lock shudder.  It wasn't going to hold that much longer for sure.  Glen pushed himself forward and stepped out onto the snow-covered roof.

]'Come on Alex,' he said.  But Alex was preoccupied; she couldn't believe what she was seeing.  The small sliding lock attached to the attic door was moving.  It was slowly jiggling back and forth by itself.  But that was impossible!  Things didn't move by itself!

'Glen...'

'Move!' his answer was.  But it was too late.  Click. 

'Glen!'  This time he stuck out his hand and the two cousins held on to each other.  Alex pulled herself up and welcomed the freezing cold air.  Behind her the attic ladder slammed onto the landing and shook the room.  Glen climbed higher up the roof and hoped his mum had parked her car close to the house for him to jump on. 

'Get off of me!' cried Alex.  Glen looked back and his heart filled with dread.  One of the men was half hanging out the window and had his fingers securely wrapped around Alex's ankle.  Glen cursed.

'No!' screamed Alex.  The man reached out and grabbed Alex's other ankle and roughly tugged her back into the bedroom.  They had her.

Glen was torn.  He didn't know what to do.  

Another man poked his head through the window and looked up at Glen.  It was the man who had crushed his cigarette butt against the ground outside. 

'Come down from there boy,' he warned, 'come back inside where we can have a nice chat.'

'Why are you here?' spat Glen with anger.  Inside he could hear a muffled scream then a loud bang.  'Leave her alone!'

'We will if you come back inside,' laughed the man.  Glen could hear Alex crying.  Leave her and get help or stay true to the promise and always stick together.  If he left her there was no guarantee that he'd ever see her again.

'I'm coming back in,' yelled Glen.

'No!' screamed Alex.  'Don't do it!  Go get my mum!'  Glen ignored her.  He carefully maneuvered himself back down the roof and climbed into his bedroom.

In one corner a man had Alex, who was now bleeding from the lip, pinned against his body.  Two more men stood in the other corner of the room and the man who had spoken to Glen before stood only a foot away.

'Glen,' sobbed Alex, 'you shouldn't have.  They're not here for me.'

Glen didn't understand, what did she mean?  He went to take a step backwards but it was too late.  The man in front of him pounced on him and within seconds Glen had his arm twisted behind his back in an armlock.  He screamed out in pain.  One more centimeter and the shoulder was definitely going to dislocate.  All of a sudden, the man who held Alex, thrust her head against the wall and she collapsed to the ground unconscious. 

'No!' screamed Glen.  He screamed, yelled, kicked and spat to no use.  A needle appeared in the corner of his eye and he squirmed away to no use.  The needle pierced his skin and Glen helplessly looked down at his cousin and briefly wondered what these men wanted just before his world plunged into darkness.

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I bet you have many more questions but these will all be answered!  The next chapter is my favourite!  Please vote and comment, I would love to hear your thoughts!