Ok so right now we got a bit of a problem that is unknown to us, a strange glob of ink had appeared in our base and has somewhat affected a book series, that we weren't aware of yet. What else is crazy is that I was going to explain the whole thing about how I used to be a fan of the Thea Sisters and how I'm starting to get back into it.
However, this is the least of our concerns of course as we soon learn that a strange new phenomenon affects all four of us as we prepare for an adventure that we least expected.
Right now I've got a bit of homework to do over the week and weekend so I might not be interactive as much, but I will say this. I will do my best to work on this story when I have time.
But for now, enjoy the read below you and let me know what you think of it! This is where the fun slowly begins for all of us mice fans!
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As morning sunshine broke, I woke up from sleep, feeling as if I had forgotten what happened yesterday as I rubbed my eyes. I got up from the bed as I stretched my body, especially my back. I then went over to my dresser to get my clothes on for today as I noticed something odd with the stack of Thea Sister books on my reading table, a few of the pages had been stained with ink.
As I pulled my shirt over my body, I looked at the books and saw that some of the drawings and writing within them are ruined. "Must have been the water I drank from last night. Darn, lesson to know for next time, never drink any liquid while reading." I thought. I then shrugged it off as I headed downstairs to see the rest of my crew and eat breakfast.
While leaving my room, a bit of ink spewed out of the books as the newspaper from this morning was on the kitchen counter.
Don was busy grilling some morning sausages as Sophia and Phil had French toast with eggs. I yawned as I walked into the cooking room.
"MMmmmm, smells yummy. Morning guys." I said still sleepy from my last night's nap.
"Morning Code, how'd you fare from last night?" Phil said looking up from his plate as he ate a piece of toast.
"Eh not too bad I guess, just that.. I think we might be out of touch to be honest." I spoke showing concern to the other members.
"Concern, what do you mean?" Don, said curiously as he flipped the sausages.
"Well the thing is, I seem to find a series I haven't read in years but I don't know if it would help us now since it is just a kids series." I said looking down as I grabbed a plate of eggs and bacon.
"What series is it?" Sophia asked as she wiped her face with a napkin.
"Well, I don't know if it's appropriate to read at this age since we're adults now." I spoke, as the morning broadcast for our school turned on from the tv. On it was a reporter around our age as they gave out the morning announcements for the campus.
"Good morning students! Today's report show that we will be having a bit of a break next week but also a writing competition at the end of the month, so be sure to brush up on your writing critiques and sharpen your pencils, because a special scholarship is up for grabs!"
Sophia's eyes widened as she heard the message from the screen.
"Wow, that's incredible. I didn't think that was going to be happening any time soon." She spoke as she bused her plate.
"This could be interesting if we could do something like this." I said thinking about the announcement. The messages kept on playing until we got the world news.
"So far the incident at Rockall Scotland has shocked the world of art and history as the Black Family Ink factory has somehow been destroyed. Local authorities have found several eye witnesses connecting the infamous artist Balthazar Black, to several crimes of theft, fraud, kidnapping, and possible death. The whereabouts of some people are still unknown, but there is hope for the city of Rockall, as old dreams drift away, new ones are formed."
Phil turned off the tv as he got up from the table. "Well, we might not have saved everyone there, we did save the world from a crazy apocalyptic force driven by an obsessed entrepreneur." He said feeling pleased with himself. He then put his dishes in the sink as he went to his room to get things ready for classes.
Don and Sophie were still in the kitchen with me as we ate silently about how we managed to pull something out of this world as a dark dimension being fully vanquished. I then took a deep breath as I decided to tell my friends about the book series I've been reading and perhaps why it means a lot to me. "I'll be right back guys, I want to show you guys something. Meet me in the common area and bring Phil in, he might want to see this." I spoke to my teammates.
"What is it going to be?" Don asked me.
"You'll see soon enough. It might be meaningful." I assured him as I bused my plates and went back to my room to get the book series from my room.
I managed to find the books still in the pile on my table as I looked at them looking back at all the memories.
These books might not be age appropriate for me or my friends anymore, but they did provide historical context of related worldly knowledge like the countries and their cultures. My personal favorites were the ones about Egypt and finding the tomb of treasures, and other books that involve a certain villain behind a mysterious priceless object that belonged to the country. The one I had just finished was about Japan and how a special theater doll, known as the Princess was stolen by a wealthy collector for his own collection of Japanese artifacts. Boy were these books something. I then picked them up as I felt a weird sting from one of the pages.
"Ouch." I felt in my thoughts as I sucked on my finger to prevent any bleeding from leaking out. Once the blood cut wasn't pouring any more liquid, I then took the books downstairs to show my friends. As I moved downstairs, I didn't know that the books pages were slowly changing color from white to gray.
As I made it to the bottom, I found all three of my teammates sitting, with Phil in an armchair, and Don and Sophie on the couch. I then set the books down on the table as I sat in a chair of my own.
"So these books, what are they exactly?" Phil asked looking up at me with somewhat of an interest.
"These are or were one of my favorite series when I was a kid, and one of the reasons why I wanted to start an investigative journalism course for one of my career choices." I said.
Don was curious about the series I showed them, Phil was a little confused, but Sophie's eyes were wide open. "You have read this series before?! I loved them!" She spoke excitedly.
"Thea Stilton series, wait a minute, isn't this related to Geronimo Stilton?" Phil asked as he recognized the book title's name.
"That's right, his series were first to come out and I read them mostly everyday. But I didn't have much time for them as much since my cases began at an early age of 13. I was really encouraged to find my own adventures and travel around the world, but I didn't have the courage or the power to go anywhere without my parents" I explained.
"How long did you have these?" Don asked while picking up one of the books.
"Ever since I was 11. My parents back then gave me one of them from a book fair in elementary school. It was the first book that got me into the female version side of Geronimo Stilton, his sister Thea." I continued my story as I answered Don's question.
As I explained more about the details about the books with Don and Sophie, Phil noticed a strange gray ooze coming out of the book pile, the same type of inky ooze we encountered from the dark dimension. It somehow was causing a small spill onto the table. Phil thought it was his eyes rolling but he quickly wiped it up. I then finished the explanation to the two as Phil was trying to pay attention to me.
"So this kids series is trying to help you get you back to your childhood memories?" Phil asked me.
"Well, it helps me keep reminding me of how well we could do if we cooperated a bit better." I said as I opened the book to show them the five girls mentioned in every book.
But as soon as I opened it, more ink spewed out. "Aww, man again?" I asked as I tried cleaning up the spill with a towel.
Sophie was getting confused as to why there was so much ink in the books as I thought it might have been the water I spilled from last night.
"As I was saying, the books taught me a bit about the world which got me the idea to go exploring outside of the U.S. and a bit out of the U.K. too. And they gave me an idea as well, which is to find some new close friends and talk about my adventures and my cases too." I said smiling giving myself some confidence in the process.
Don then spoke up. "But why haven't you told us about these books in the first place? Why did you stop reading them?"
This made me feel a bit down as I felt nostalgia depression affect my mind. I didn't want to tell them as I felt a bit angry, sad, and scared about the truth that still haunts me. Then I started to cry as warm small strands of tears came from my eyes. Most of them touched the table around the books, as I was feeling extremely sad.
Phil then for the first time got a bit worried as he patted my shoulder and gave me a tissue box to wipe away the soreness from my face. I got all of the tears off of me, except one which I missed which fell off my cheek and onto a certain part of the top book of the book pile. It landed on the author's face, a gray mouse with light blue eyes and a nice smile on her face. She wore a black coat with a fur line around her neck as she looked stunning at her audience. Then something unnatural started to happen.
A strange breeze from outside opened up as wind started to fill the room with coldness. The books on the shelves next to the fireplace started to fall out and fly within the wind as the tear from the book caused the illustration of the mouse to change expression from happiness to a heartbroken sadness as her eyebrows somewhat started to squint. Then the book pile started to open up as the ink from the pages started to flash as we got up.
"Uh guys? What's happening?! Don yelled as he covered his eyes from the glowing books.
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's not good!" Sophie shouted within the winds.
"You're telling me! Code what did you do?!" Phil yelled at me angrily, as the glow got brighter from the books as we felt a swish of air. Black and palish yellow streams came from the pages as we heard laughter of girls, but then cries of anguish as if they needed help. We then felt the strange surge of magic starting to pull us in as we felt our bodies begin to change matter.
"Woooooaaaaahhhh! Phil screamed as he was the first to be pulled into the book whirlpool of magic.
"Phil!" We all shouted shocked that this was really happening.
Then a few other things started to pour into the whirlpool surrounding the books. Like our case files of our old mysteries, our backpacks that had our schedules for school, as Don was being lifted into the air as the matter of his body changed into mist as he became the second one to enter.
"Guys! Help UUUUUSSSSSS!" Don panicked as he disappeared within the whirlpool too.
"Oh man, this is really bad!" I said as I had no idea what to do or how this was all happening.
"Cody, help! I think it's got me!" Sophie shrieked as she too was feeling her body being floated above the whirlpool as she was slowly getting sucked in. First her legs then her torso. I then grabbed an umbrella from the cane stand as I tried to fish her out of there.
"Hang on Sophie I got you!" I shouted as I allowed her to hold onto the handle part. She had a firm grip as I pulled her out slowly. However, the magical whirlpool wasn't giving up as it's pull was stronger than mine as the umbrella itself slipped out of my hands.
Sophie was then dragged into the glow as she too vanished in thin air.
"NOOOOO!" I shrieked as then I knew it was soon my turn to join them, I needed to do something to help us out, so as a last act of desperation, I found what was really important, a sample copy of one of the Thea Sister books and a picture of all four of us from a lamp stand as I felt myself being pulled into the vortex.
"Oh my gooood!" I yelled as I was spinning like crazy into the books. Then the howling winds started to cool down as the items around the room slowly came down to the floor. The whirlpool of magic slowly shrank back into the books themselves as the book shut tight allowing a new title to appear on the cover.
We all caught up with each other as we formed solid again in one piece each but we had a hard time tracking each other as somehow we felt a fuzzing in our bodies and our eyes closed due to the rapid spinning. All four of us felt a weird poke from our clothes and our skin as we got a bit warmer than usual as we felt our ears perk up to either the loud sounds or something in the winding chamber. We also felt our mouths blow out as if our faces were being pulled or pushed. We then kept spinning until we felt solid ground hard. We then blacked out for a bit, still dizzy from the swirling vortex.
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And there we go. We haven't quite figured out exactly what happened in our common area among the books, but sooner or later, we're about to find out that things are getting cheesier than we expected. This is a small Easter egg clue for you about the next chapter. We are so close to seeing our favorite Thea Sisters meet us as we would be shocked at how we're going to play this. How did we get here? What will we learn? How will we respond to the environment and everyone around us? Stay tuned to find out in the next chapter, I'm so exhausted from writing, I need a rest. Hope you enjoyed this chapter today!