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Book 2 Chapter IV - The Worst Possible Scenario

Chapter 14 - The Worst Possible Scenario

"Mother, you'll have to come back right now," Grievous said telepathically. "We've got a bit of an emergency on our hands."

"I'm on my way," Terror replied.

~~~~

Dani struggled to her feet, taking care never to put weight on her injured foot for more than a second at a time. Balancing precariously on her good foot, she started hopping down the hall, still leaning against the wall. After a while (she had no idea how long, since this whole nightmare seemed to stretch out forever), she tripped over something and landed on a very uneven piece of ground. It was a sore landing. When the pain subsided, she felt around and realised that she'd found a staircase.

Climbing the stairs with a twisted ankle proved difficult, and several times she slipped and fell to the ground. The words she used on these occasions were unrepeatable, I'm afraid, and not the sort her parents would have liked to hear.

After this happened for the thirteenth time (though Dani thought it was the one thousand five hundredth), a door opened somewhere far away and was shut with considerable force and the "click-clack" sound of footsteps approached. Dani tried to get up, panic-stricken, but fell again with a whimper of pain.

"What idiot is making all this noise at one in the morning?" a very irritated voice demanded.

Dani stayed still, hoping the person wouldn't see her. Luck was against her.

Someone somewhere hates me, she thought angrily as she was picked up by the collar of her pyjamas and carried down the hall. And I can't even think what I've done to upset them!

Once inside the office, she was deposited none too gently on the floor.

"Now," the voice said, "what is it you - Oh. It's you."

Dani looked up, confused and very angry. She was in a room lit entirely by candles, and standing in front of her was...

"You!"

The Grim Reaper-lookalike shrank back slightly, as if it was startled (its face was hidden behind a Hallowe'en mask that looked like a screaming face).

"You know me?" it asked in a strange voice that sounded neither male nor female.

Dani blinked and shook her head. "I thought I did, but I don't think so any more."

I was probably remembering a picture I'd seen of the Grim Reaper or something.

"I see," the thing said. "I suppose you have a lot of questions."

"You could say that." 'A lot of questions'? A lot of questions?! You kidnap me, bring me here, scare me half to death, and then say you suppose I have a lot of questions?

"What would you like answered first?" it asked calmly, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary about all this.

Something inside Dani snapped, as it always did when she lost her temper. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe you could start with why you kidnapped me? And what you want with me? Who the hell are you and what the hell have I done to deserve this?" She was practically screaming by the final sentence.

The Grim Reaper-thing waited for a moment after she finished. "I am Lady Terror De Mon, and you were brought here because of a misunderstanding."

Dani said nothing. It went without saying that she didn't believe a word of it.

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"Do you really expect me to?"

Lady Terror De Mon sighed. "I suppose not."