The 15th Counsel

“The twins are gone, Seth, gone!” I was speaking louder, panicking. Seth was just staring at me, his bag dropped to the ground, forgotten. His mouth was open slightly and confusion was in his eyes.

“G-gone...” He finally got out. I let out a tiny frustrated sigh and put his little brother, Jacob, in his arms, the note back in his little hand. Seth looked down at him, and read the note. He groaned. Of course, that was panicked, also. “They said they wouldn’t! I have to go talk to them.” He muttered to himself, turned around, and walked towards the door.

I was surprised. I hadn’t even noticed that he had put little Jacob back in my arms. I looked down at him, but quickly looked back at Seth. He was already at the door. I stopped him just in time.

“Seth! Where are you going?” I asked, walking towards him as he turned around and looked at me as if I just appeared out of nowhere.

“What?”

“You’re not just going to leave me here, I’m going with you!” I was right next to him by then.

“No- you can’t, Lacy!” He rushed. “Definitely not!”

“Why not? I’m part of this too, now, Seth! Whatever it is, I mean.” I retorted. He blinked. That’s all he did. Blink. “Well? Are we going, or what? The twins-”

“Fine, you can come,” he said, “but hurry up, and don’t freak out about anything.”

“I’ve been through enough just now to know what’s going on...” I muttered.

“Right, I get it, now hurry up.” He said, going out the door. I closed it behind us and rushed after Seth. He was heading towards their garden shed. I didn’t ask questions, though. No matter how many were popping into my head at the time.

He unlocked the shed with a specific code. It was the weirdest lock I’d ever seen. Actually, I wasn’t sure if it was really even there. It was unlocked in a second, and we rushed inside. He closed the door behind us.

“Ah! I can’t see!” I whispered. I don’t know why people always feel the need to whisper in the dark. It’s more of a habit, if anything.

“Shh!” Seth commanded and pushed me forward. He guided me somewhere. I wondered how he could see where we were going. Since he seemed to know exactly what he was doing, though, I didn’t ask questions.

Finally, he stopped me and moved in front of me. I saw something shimmering blue in the dark right in front of us. I stared at it, wondering what it was. Seth went up to it just like the front of the shed. I realized that it was another lock.

As soon as the door opened, Seth shoved me through and closed the door behind us. We were in a really small, bright, room. There were buttons and lights all over the place. I stared at Seth.

“Don’t worry, we’re almost there.” He replied, misinterpreting my glare. Oh well. Then, he did a lot more boring stuff, like pressing buttons and muttering to himself, as I waited impatiently for him to be finished.

He sighed and pressed a final button. The whole place shook like an earthquake, and then, it was perfectly still. After we heard a ding, Seth sighed in relief. He pushed the door open, and we were in a completely different place, or even different world.

My eyes widened as we stepped out into a huge room. The floor was tiled, and there was a chandelier above. Under the chandelier on a table there was the most beautiful glass vase, halfway filled with water. It had one black rose, looking so beautiful and sad, all by itself.

Seth moved forward as I looked around. I quickly noticed him and jumped forward to be right behind him. I followed him across the room. Our footsteps echoed as we walked towards a door. He stopped in front of the door and turned to face me.

“Not a word. Not even a gasp.” He said sternly. “This is extremely important, and I trust you. Don’t make me wish I hadn’t.” I felt like a little kid, wanting my best to show him that his trust was not misplaced!

Of course, then, I nodded in response. He opened those doors (oh, so many doors,) to a voice.

“Welcome, Seth Rowley, Heir, and... f-friend? Why have you brought someone with you, Seth?” A strict voice, that was smooth at first, spat.

“You dragged her into this.” He growled back.

“Oh great.” I heard whoever it was, mutter. The room seemed to be kind of out of focus. I blinked a couple times, and it was all better. Seth stared at me.

“Wait, Lacy, can you see the room? Is it not just a blur to you?” He whispered. I raised an eyebrow at him. “Just nod if you can see.” He said, realizing that he told me not to talk. So, I nodded.

In the next second, Seth gasped in surprise at me, and whoever had been talking to us was stalking right towards me. I looked over as quick as I could, but he was already right next to us.

“Lacy, is it? Tell me, what Counsel have you come from?” He asked. I stared at him.

“W-what?” I whispered.

“Counsel, girl, what Counsel?” He was shaking me by the shoulders. “This is the 15th Counsel, what Counsel are you from?” He asked again. I shook my head in confusion.

Seth pushed him off me.

“My family would know if Lacy was part of a Counsel. We’re strong enough. What do you take us for?” Seth yelled at him. “Leave her alone! Obviously, she’s just as surprised as us! Right, Lacy?” He turned to look at me.

“Actually, I really just want to know why I shouldn’t be able to see...” I muttered. Seth sighed and turned back to the guy.

“Where are they?” He demanded. “This wasn’t supposed to happen! We had a deal!”

“A deal? Seth, no, never. The twins were never yours.”

“They’re my sisters! What right do you have to take them from me? I told you they wouldn’t listen to you! They are in no way related by heart, by blood lock, to you!” I looked at Seth, having no idea what was going on, no idea what he was talking about.

“Of course, though, Seth, we are related by blood-”

“You know what I mean. You know what a blood lock is.” Seth hissed. “You know I don’t mean relation.” The guy’s eyes lowered into a glare. He glanced at me again.

“Oh, so Lacy, I haven’t introduce-”

“Get away from her! Stay away from us and give me back my sisters!” Seth yelled, pushing him away.

“Of course, Seth.” He hissed, glaring.

“Don’t touch her.” Seth hissed back under his breath. I was getting seriously annoyed with my own ignorance.

“Seth, wha-”

“Lacy, please, I’ll explain later!” He whispered, looking at me with pleading eyes. I sighed, again.

“So, Seth, shall we make another deal? Maybe, perhaps, a Blood Lock?”

“Lorcan, now why on earth would I do that?” Seth’s voice was suddenly calm. “As I said earlier, that’s not something we do. It’s not smart, you see. It’s too risky. A last resort.”

“Maybe this is your last chance.” Lorcan (apparently) said to Seth. I knew his name, now, at least. I was getting somewhere, right? I still felt lost, as if I shouldn’t have been there. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have come,’ I was telling myself through thought.

“You know it isn’t.” Seth replied. “Where are they!?” Lorcan sighed.

“Through that room you will find a case. There’s a key in it. The thing is, we can’t get them out.” There was a silence.

“What?” Seth was obviously confused and extremely pissed off.

“They’re in a room that’s magic proof, Bella and Erin proof, too, and we... can’t even touch the key.” He admitted with shame in his voice, avoiding our eyes while glaring at the floor. Seth and I just stared at him. How stupid is it to make a room that you can’t even get into. I was sure of most of my ideas, by now, whether they were right or wrong. I was nearly one hundred percent sure.

We walked into the next room, Lorcan following. We approached a box. Seth reached for it, but something flashed, and the next second, he was kneeling on the floor, clutching his hand in pain. Blood was slowly seeping down his hand, which was holding the bleeding hand. I gasped.

“Lorcan,” Seth said calmly, but with clenched teeth, “Did you proof the box, too?” He inhaled sharply and clutched his hand closer.

“Uh…. Erm….. y-yeah…” Lorcan replied, looking off to the right.

“You idiot! Why would you do that?” Seth yelled at him. I was wondering the same thing. “Well, it’s a good thing Lacy came with me!” I looked at him in surprise.

“W-what?” I stuttered.

“Come here and open this box.” Seth commanded. I stared at him. I noticed that my mouth was open. I closed it, and blinked.

“Say pleeeeeeease!” I strung out, mockingly. This actually made him laugh, though.(S) I was expecting him to start yelling at me, like he had done to Lorcan, but I’m guessing that since I wasn’t the cause of all this, and Seth isn’t really a mad kind of person, that he was thinking he has no right to yell at me, and I deserve at least a “please,” right?(L) He grinned at me.(T) I looked over at Lorcan, but he was just standing, there looking surprised. (M)

“Please, Lacy?” Seth laughed. “Please come over here and try to open this box for me?” (Wow, that lightened up the whole mood of this story, didn’t it?) So, I cautiously walked over to the box. It was on a small desk. I reached towards it while they waited impatiently. I shook my head and picked up the box. It was oddly light, even though it looked like the box by itself would be heavy.

“Good!” Seth sighed in relief. “But… that still doesn’t explain why you can see anything clearly, here,” he muttered. I opened the box, and we all looked inside. Lorcan sighed in relief. Seth and I gasped, though. It was a key, obviously as Lorcan had said, but it was so…. perfect.

“We wont be able to use that anymore after this,” Lorcan sighed, “So, you can keep it, Lacy. You know, since you’re the only one of us that can touch it.” My eyes widened in glee. I love keys, especially old fashion ones like this (even if it looked new).

“Eep!” I squeaked, realizing that the twins were still in danger. Seth must have realized the same thing, because we both rushed towards the small door with the lock that fit the key perfectly.

The door opened with the key, and the twins nearly fell out. It looked like they had been trying to open the door, but it hadn’t been working.

“Lacy!” Bella cried, nearly tackling me to the ground. I hugged them both when Erin slowly and carefully hugged me also.(M) Seth looked worried, though.(T) I told them to go over and talk to him, to tell him exactly what happened, since it really had nothing to do with me, but they dragged me along and I got to hear the whole story, for once. Seth and I both sat down.(S) They sat on our laps.

“We were playing hide and seek,” Bella started, whispering, “and I wanted to hide in the secret closet, Seth, but Erin wanted to, so we fought. But, Seth, she put me on the bookcase!” Bella whimpered.

“She’s afraid of heights.” Seth whispered to me. I nodded. I knew.

“Well, so, I trapped her behind the bookcase.” Bella pronounced, sounding proud of herself. Erin shuddered and glared at Bella.

“She’s claustrophobic.” Seth explained, again. I nodded, and gave him a look that said ‘Stop telling me things I already know!’ He snickered at me. “Sorry.”

“Erin, where did you go, though? What happened?” Bella asked, turning to her twin.

“Kieran.” Erin said, simply. Seth stood up really quickly, putting Erin on the floor.

“LORCAN!” He yelled, turning around. Lorcan looked like he had been about to leave. His black hair fell into his face as he stopped, suddenly, like he had been caught. He let out a nervous laugh. “I told you NEVER let Kieran go near them!” Seth yelled.

“Seth, he was the only one here!” Lorcan said, hysterically. His hand reached for the door behind him.

“If he ever gets near them again, YOU’RE gunna be the one that pays!” Seth yelled. Lorcan opened the door and backed through it as fast as he could.

We got home as fast as we could.