“Have you heard from Edana lately?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Have you spoken to her mom?”
“Yeah, fat lot of help it did me too. ‘She’s probably off with a bunch of her delinquent friends’.”
“She’s never been missing for this long before.”
“I realise that.”
“No need to get snappy, you’re not the only one who’s worried about her.”
“I wasn’t being snappy, I’m just frustrated. Have you tried her cell?”
“Obviously, it goes straight to voicemail.”
“I was hoping maybe you could get her to answer her phone.”
“It’s not about her not answering; it’s about her phone being off.”
“Or out of range.”
“Don’t say things like that.”
“You’re right, sorry. "
“How’s Trace?”
“She’s fine. Worried about Ed though.”
“We all are.”
“Yeah, you heard from Greg?”
“He phoned yesterday, he can’t get a hold of her either.”
“Where do you think she’d have gone?”
“I don’t know, you’d think if something bad was going on she’d call you or at least go to Bonfire.”
“I know. It’s so not like her. You don’t think anyone could have taken her, do you?”
“No way! She’s the best fighter around, there’s no way she would let herself be kidnapped!”
“But you know how reckless she can be.”
“Reckless maybe, but she’s not stupid. She would never allow herself to be put into such a vulnerable position.”
*****
“I’m so bored!” Edana whined for the thousandth time.
“Sorry, Edana, but you Darren gave strict orders that you weren’t to leave the house while him and Christian are out,” Dantè replied wearily.
“Exactly! He said not to leave the house! He never said anything about not leaving this chair, now untie me!!” She screamed.
Josh was sitting on the couch, rubbing his temples. Edana and Dantè had been fighting for about an hour already and it was giving him a headache. Darren and Christian had needed to go out for supplies and Darren had left orders to keep Edana at the house; Dantè, worried that she would disobey and fight them off if they tried to stop her, had taken the initiative of tying her to the chair to stop her from leaving.
Everyone had a very strong urge to untie her, but thankfully they could fight it off. Unlike vampyres, Edana couldn’t control minds, just put suggestions in their head. It would work well on humans, making them think that it was their own idea to do something, but they all knew what Edana was up to and could therefor fight it.
The first fifteen minutes had been spent with everyone in the house going deaf and blind while Edana screamed in their mind to let her go or she’ll keep them like that. Eventually Philip pointed out that if they were all blind, they couldn’t untie her, so she resorted to just making everyone deaf. That lasted another fifteen minutes until she realised they could just use their minds to talk to each other. She then blocked everyone off from mental communication, but none of them seemed to mind that. By the end of it she was mentally exhausted, which is what led to her and Dantè’s epic screaming match.
Edana finally went quiet and everyone gave a sigh of relief, which turned to a groan of pain as Edana started singing inside everyone’s minds, as loud as possible.
“One Million bottles of beer on the wall, one million bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall…”
“Edana don’t,” Dantè warned, scowling.
“Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine beers on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall!!”
“I’m not going to untie you, Edana,” Dantè persevered.
“Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight beers on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven bottles of beer on the wall!!”
“Make it stop!” Josh groaned, holding his head in a futile attempt at blocking out Edana’s singing.
“Dantè just untie her,” Philip growled.
“No. I don’t care how irritating she gets; she’s staying on the chair.”
Edana’s smirked evilly, “Nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven beers on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six bottles of beer on the wall!!”
*****
“Nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy two bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy two bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy one bottles of beer on the wall!!”
The door slammed open, revealing Darren and Christian, who looked around at their crazed comrades.
“What’s going on?” Darren asked curiously.
“Make – her – stop!!” Josh cried.
“Stop what?” Christian asked confused.
They all looked at Edana, who smiled angelically back at Darren, though her eyes twinkled with mischief. “Nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy one bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy one bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy bottles of beer on the wall!!”
Josh and Dantè looked at Darren pleadingly, while Philip continued to grind his teeth at the ceiling. Christian just looked at Edana like she’d lost her mind as Darren sighed like the weight of the world rested on his shoulders alone.
“How long has she been singing that song?” He asked.
“She started at a million!!” Josh wailed.
“This is over the thousandth verse already!!” Dantè yelled.
“She started at a million!!” Josh moaned again.
“A little over six hours,” Philip replied in feigned calm.
“A million!!” Josh cried with wide eyes, as if his point hadn’t already been made.
“Nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and seventy bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-nine bottles of beer on the wall!!”
“Shut it, Edana!” Darren snapped.
“Nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-nine bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and sixty-nine bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-eight bottles of beer on the wall!!”
“Why is she singing that?” Christian asked. “And why is she tied to a chair?” He added, eyebrows raised.
“She’s tied to a chair because Dantè thought it would be the only way to keep her in the house like you asked and she started singing because she wants to be untied,” Philip explained.
“Nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-eight bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-nine bottles of beer!! If one bottle’s shot and breaks off the wall, then there’s nine hundred and ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred and sixty-seven bottles of beer on the wall!!”
“So untie her, you dolts!” Darren cried, already rubbing his temples in frustration.
Josh jumped to untie her and she immediately stopped singing; all the vampyres visibly sagged with relief. She blew them all a kiss and wink and skipped off for a shower, laughing manically.
“So where are all the so-called supplies you guys went to get?” Josh asked after Edana had left the room.
“We didn’t go get supplies, we just told you that so because we needed someone to watch Edana and we couldn’t risk her reading your minds and finding out where we really were,” Darren explained, sinking into couch.
“So where were you then?” Dantè asked, leaning forward in his seat.
“We went to see the Prince. We showed him our memories without Edana’s interference,” he said.
“And?” Josh asked, almost on the edge of his seat in anticipation.
“He wants to see her us, and her, tomorrow morning,” he informed them, smirking slightly in victory.