~ Power ~

Chapter 17 - The Woman In The Purple Dress

‘Thank you, I thought of it on the spot.’

Wendy pondered for a moment and then said, ‘What about sparky sheilas.’

Freya laughed. ‘What about, those crazy women trying to kill us.’

Wendy smiled and rolled her eyes. ‘What about–’

Just then the man re-entered the room with a bowl of hot pasta, covered in cheese and real pasta sauce. He placed it on the table in front of him and sat down. ‘So you girls ain’t from these parts I take it?’

Wendy shook her head. ‘Nope.’

‘Where are you from then?’ the man asked, shifting his gaze between the girls.

‘A little town called Hanon,’ Freya said.

‘And what brings you here?’ The man scoops up a large portion of pasta and shovels it into his mouth. ‘Mmmm,’ he says.

‘We…um,’ Wendy struggles, grasping at straws.

‘We sell perfume, and potions,’ Freya said. ‘We go from town to town and sell our wares.’

‘Interesting.’ He slurps up a big string of pasta, sauce flicking into his beard and a speck or two landing in his bushy eyebrows. ‘And what brings you to this area,’ he taps the table with his fork, ‘in specific?’

A scream sounded from downstairs. The man squinted his eyes and looked at Wendy.

‘You. Is that one of your buddies come to rob me clean?’

Wendy shook her head. The man stood up and approached a cupboard on against the wall and removed a shotgun from it. ‘We’ll see,’ he said, loading it with shells.

Wendy looked at Freya and mouthed, ‘robbie’. Freya nodded. Wendy’s eyes began to tear up.

‘Don’t hurt him,’ she cried out.

The man looked back at her and smile. ‘Ah, so you do know him?’

‘Yes, I do,’ Wendy said with resolve, but tears still streaming down her face. ‘I love him…’ she took a deep breath and continued, ‘and if you hurt him I will destroy you, and this house. I will destroy your entire farm.’

The man’s smile faded and he regarded Wendy for a moment. He nodded slowly. ‘You and what army,’ he said and limped out of the room, a loud wooden clunky following. The girls both stood up and made their way to where he had disappeared. Wendy looked around frantically but all she could see was a hallway to the bathroom and a linen closet.

‘You love him?’ Freya asked, her mouth open a little.

‘I don’t know. I think so. Can you help me find where he went?’

Freya nodded and started searching. They heard the man’s voice downstairs now, loud and irritable. And they heard Robbie’s in return, weak and broken.

‘I found something,’ Freya said. She moved aside a rug on the floor of the lounge room to reveal a trapdoor. Before they could open it they heard the man shout loudly.

‘Quick,’ Wendy said, ‘We need to get down there now!’

‘I’m trying,’ Freya said, scratching at the handle. ‘He must have locked it from the inside.’

‘Can you use the Red Jade to fire punch through? Or maybe make some sort of drill out of the Hematite?’

Freya frowned. ‘I still don’t have the energy kiddo. This one’s on you.’

Tears streamed down Wendy’s face and Freya embraced her. ‘You can do this. I know you can. You’ve done so well the past few days without me. You can do this.’