Control of the Supernaturals_ On Hold

6) The symbol _ again

Pat was lost in day dreams. "Mr. Jones come back to earth, come back to failure," the orphanage teacher rapped her stick on Pat's desk .

He snapped out of his day dream in which he was a famous and rich doctor.

"You are a failure Patrick Jones. Why do you day dream? What do you day dream about, I can't imagine. Why ate you still sitting? Stand up!" Mrs. Pierce shouted.

Pat looked at her in disgust and stood up.

"You will keep standing and also write I must not day dream 500 times. Is that enough or you want more?" she snapped.

"No, thank you!" said Pat.

"You trying to cheek me? Come to me after school time. I will teach you to be rude," she shouted again.

"But I wasn't rude," said Pat in surprise.

"Not another word, Patrick," she hissed.

Pat's face fell. He didn't mean to be rude. "She just wants to get her anger out on someone and I happen to be her favourite target. I wonder why she hates me so much?" Pat thought.

He started day dreaming again, that a boy was warning him about Mrs. Pierce. He was saying that she was an alien trying to eat his brain and his mission was to warn his class follows. " I must warn everyone. Mrs. Pierce is an alien. She wants to eat our brains," shouted Pat.

A hard slap on his face made him realise that he had not only shouted in his day dream world but also in reality.

"You come with me," said Mrs. Pierce angrily.

She dragged him out of the classroom by his hair and pushed him inside the attic used as a storeroom. It had broken chairs and desks pretty much like the ones in their classes, the only difference was that here they were stacked on top of one another.

"You will remain locked up here without any food all day long. This will teach you to respect me in future." Mrs. Pierce laughed and left.

Pat heard the click of the door being locked. He did not know what to do. So he just at down on the dusty floor and began to day dream again.

A hunger pang made him come back to the real world.

"Why am I day dreaming so much today?" he asked himself.

"Because I need answers," he told himself.

He began pacing across the room. Who is the old man? What is that sign? Who is the mightiest of all evils? How can we protect ourselves from it? These questions kept him tensed. He floped down beside the wall, hungry and upset, trying to sleep.

After some time Pat felt nausea creeping up to his mouth. He wanted to get out of the stinky dusty room. He as angry at Jake for not looking for him. He tried to sit comfortably with his back to the wall and dozed off to sleep.

After a long time, he heard a rhythmic sound and woke up, startled.

He looked around and realised that someone was banging at the door.

"Are you there, Pat." He heard Jake's voice through the door.

"Yes!" he shouted joyfully and ran to the door.

"There's no key 'ere, Pat," said Jake.

"Where are Richie and Austin?" asked Pat.

"Dunno where Richie is, but don't fret, Austin's gone looking for 'im." answered Jake.

Pat was dumbfounded. His heart beating loudly against his chest. He had been given strange warnings in his dreams for the past couple of weeks, at intervals. Strange symbols and other stuff he couldn't make head or tail of. The latest warning from the old man had been the most intense. The thing Pat feared the most had happened.

He felt all right as long as he was with Richie. But now, Richie was gone. Now he realised that this was what the old man had warned him against.

Pat felt tears welling up in his eyes. For the first time in his life he felt pain. An intense pain in his chest, which he was sure had nothing to do with his hunger. It was due to the mental shock he was suffering from. It was agony. He had never felt this kind of pain before, or any kind of pain. He was immune to pains and aches.

". . . think it's a good idea. Do you?" Jake had been relating an idea about Pat didn't know what.

" Yes," said Pat as if in a trance.

He heard Jake's footsteps move away.

After about fifteen minutes Jake came back with the key and opened the door.

"How did you get hold of the key?" asked Pat

"You weren't listenin', were you?" asked Jake.

"No," said Pat.

"I slipped an envelope in Mrs. Pierce's room with a note inside that said:

"Meet me at the Western Cowboy Café. Come at once."

I know that she is a part of a club or somethin'. She go dressed and left at once. I sneaked into her room and started lookin' for the key. I found it in a drawer along with the all the other keys," explained Jake.

"I'll put it back," said Pat.

"I'm sure 'Fierce Pierce' will be fumin' about tomorrow, lookin' for you," said Jake.

"No worries," said Pat and locked the door before running towards Mrs. Pierce's room.

He pulled open the top drawer and saw usual, everyday stuff like a stapler, pencils, paperclips and many other things. Nothing interesting.

He pulled open the next drawer and saw some files. Out of curiosity, he looked at their names. The last file had no name but a symbol instead. It was a star with a diamond between each two arms.

It was a pity he didn't open it. It contained answers to many of the uncountable questions that kept buzzing in his mind all the time.

He placed the files back in order again and pulled open the third drawer. There were all sorts of keys inside it, so he threw the key to the attic there and ran out.

He wanted to eat something that and hide before Mrs. Pierce came back. He was sure to get into trouble tomorrow but he didn't care.

All he wanted to do was to find Richie. He couldn't sleep a wink all night. Austin had returned without any clue of Richie. Pat was also afraid that Mrs. Pierce may lock him up again and hide the key somewhere else.

He was so worried about Richie that he did not even think about the strange symbol he had seen while replacing the key. Little did he knew the visit to Mrs. Pierce's room was going to be of much more importance than he thought.

Yes, certainly much, much more.

Author's note:

Tell me who your favourite character is? Who do you think possess better character, Alexandra or Mrs. Pierce? Please give me your views as well as advice. Thanks for reading.