The Witch Chronicles (In Bloom Book 2.5)

Lost in the Book with Stitch Finale

Gantu scooted himself further back, trying to increase the gap between us. He nearly allowed the capsule that contained Grim to slip out of his hand.

"That's as far as you go!" he yelled.

"Here's what's going to happen, Captain," I stepped closer. "You will give me back my familiar and you will leave this island. You will not set foot here again."

"I refuse to take orders from you! My job is to deliver Experiment 626 and that's exactly what I'll do."

I sighed in disappointment, "Not in a mood to negotiate I see. Then, let's run an experiment of our own, shall we?"

Roots erupted from the sand and snatched the glass prison away from Gantu. Before he could make another move, an enormous venus fly trap snatched him. His shouts were muffled as the mouth of the plant tightened against him. The plant violently shook as he attempted to fight his way out. It was adorable. Volet smoke poured out of the crevices. It's swaying slowed. A few short moments went by before the fly trap opened again. Gantu was not moving.

"You killed him?!" Ace exclaimed. "You did-you...you killed him?!"

"Oh, relax! He's just going to be unconscious for a while. He'll wake up with a really bad headache though."

"Have you gone soft, Cassandra?" Azul adjusted his glasses. "We should be demanding compensation for the capture robots Gantu has constantly sent our way since we got here."

There was no way I would let him off so easily.

I brought myself to Grim's location, a cave on the furthest side of the island. I would get my familiar back, but not without causing some mild inconveniences on Gantu's end.

I grew some sugar cane, powdered it, and poured it into one of the tanks leading into the ship. I remember Idia saying that the molecular structure of sugar will block the filtration system of a vehicle and cause the power to surge or the main engine to stall. He had introduced me to a crime anime and was pointing out some of the inaccuracies of it. With that information on hand, I disconnected the wiring system leading to the propellors and stiffened the turbines underneath the wings. For some extra measures, I hid what looked like a set of keys.

He was too focused on communicating with someone on a device to notice everything I had done. When his attention was finally focused on me, it was showtime.

"EXCUSE ME!!! FAMILIAR STILL TRAPPED HERE!!!" Grim pounded from the inside of the glass.

Stitch quickly stood up to hit and drove his head to smash the glass, allowing Grim to crawl out. He ran into my arms.

I tightly hugged him, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, just mildly traumatized."

"Why did you run away like that?"

Grim's ears lowered and his gaze drifted down, "Everyone was so impressed by what Stitch was doing....and I thought...I thought you'd want to replace me."

"Never."

"Ohana!" Stitch happily said.

"Ohana...." I thought it over. "Ohana means family?"

Stitch nodded in confirmation.

With that mattered resolved, we heading to Stitch's spaceship which was ready for takeoff.

"You gonna come with us to Night Raven College, Stitch?" Floyd asked. "You comin' would be super fun."

Stitch sighed in disappointment before he said, "Ohana."

"You need to go back to your family," Lilia said. "We understand. We have to return to our own ohana as well."

Stitch climbed up onto Lilia and tightly hugged him from behind, nuzzling his face against Lilia's neck. He did the same thing to Floyd, Riddle, and everyone else in our group.

With all our goodbyes exchanged, we climbed aboard and took off. We all looked outside the windows as the island became smaller and smaller against the blue ocean.

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My head was spinning when my eyes opened. My body ached as I stood up from the floor. I took out my phone from my pocket and checked the time. We had only been here for less than hour?

"Uhmm...what we were doing?" Riddle asked in no one specific.

I tried to piece together the details. I was looking for a travel book with Grim.

"Did we all doze off?" Grim scratched his head. "I feel like I haven't slept at all."

We all looked questionably to one another, absolutely clueless as to what happened.

When it seemed no one had any clear answers, Floyd spoke, "Hey, I was thinkin'....durin' summer vacation, does everyone wanna go to the beach?"

"That's what I was thinking too!" Ace said with excitement. "With everyone here, I betcha it's gonna be a blast!"

Azul nodded, "Normally, I'd say the ocean is not novel, but I feel the same way. We should all find a beach we can all get to."

"Uhm...guys?" they all looked to me. "If we're going to the beach....this would probably be a good time to mention that I...I can't swim. I never learned how to."

"Don't worry about it," Jack consoled me, "I'll carry you myself in the water if I have to. We're not gonna leave you out of the fun."

Lilia laughed, "This sounds like we'll have an exceptionally happy summer vacation together!"