Ethan Takes a Break

Brooklyn opened her eyes wide and looked into the mirror in her room, from where Isaiah had just flown out of. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream. She could help her people! Why was Isaiah stopping her?

Her purple eyes glowed in the mirror mockingly. It wasn't always purple. It had been a light breezy blue, the color of her parents' eyes. It had changed that day three years ago...when she found herself next to The Wheel and some of its magic got infused within her.

It was Isaiah who had warned her not to tell her parents, they were government officials after all, Isaiah had said that they will give her up for experimenting and he had been right. So instead of letting herself get experimented she practiced everyday in her room, honing the magic she had been gifted with. Because in the Wheel, the magic can only produce energy, but in a human body...

it can work miracles. Rewind to the immediate past, heal broken bodies, charm people a little and one more thing. She hadn't tried it in these three years...but she felt like she could do it. The Wheel Magic could probably...

bring a person back to life.

She didn't care what Isaiah thought about this. He can protect her for only so long, this time, she was going to do what is right. She pulled open her drawer and pulled out the blue contact lenses and masked her eyes, the only proof of her being different.

She walked out of the house to look for Isaiah and get that book back, no one turning her way because to them, she was just a rich government official's daughter, but inside, she was a storm.

She was walking through the long open halls outside the Palace Assistant Living Quarters on the day everything changed. It was evening and the clouds were twisted across the crimson sky like cotton candy.

The maids and workers were slowly retreating to their rooms for dinner and the gardens, the only fountain in the Living Quarters and the long green grass hushed as the first stars started to appear in the night sky.

Kayden had been tired sitting in his room. No one had come to call him to work so he just relished the bounciness of his bed and thought about what he will do now. Sam's room was empty. Kayden knew because he had checked. Sam hadn't even told him that he was going to look around. It was as if...

the palace was tearing them both apart slowly. "No, no way," Kayden blurted shaking his head and turning the door knob to step out. He needed to find the stables, maybe they needed help reigning in the horses after all?

He saw the tall Prison Tower Cluster in front of him. He was about to turn around in the opposite direction when a little black dot on the Cluster's strong walls caught his eye.

He stepped closer to see what it was. First it was a little dot, then he could make it out slightly. Two long legs, a black prison cap...

It was a prisoner trying to break out of jail! Kayden smirked and shook his head and decided to check out the free prisoner instead, forgetting about the stables. But then, a voice stopped him.

"Who are you? I haven't seen you around," Brooklyn asked incredulously, her arms crossed. She knew every single person in the inner palace faculty. Their families, most of their addresses and their jobs. Ever since her parents got accepted as Palace counselors when she was six, there was no one but a boring maid at home who didn't even care about her. And thus, initially with the help of little boy Isaiah who had access to most of the palace, she started her favorite hobby-- palace safaris.

But this boy, with the sneaky brown eyes, long hair and slightly slanted eyes arouse in her a suspicion she couldn't get rid of. He wasn't the son of any maid and there were no job spots left...what was his business here?

He smiled effortlessly, her charm falling over her immediately, but she being sensible only smiled back curtly. "Nice to meet you, I'm Kayden," he said then looked past her, "I'm here to work as a stable boy but I don't know where they are, could you show me?"

Brooklyn's eyes thinned. Stable boy, huh? She needed to find Isaiah...there were more pressing things at hand. She decided to let Kayden go for now, and do a background check later. No one escapes her secret background checks. If she ever became Queen of Zyka, she believed she would make a great one. She knew the country better than the Prince himself! Every normal citizen did!

"Follow me," she commanded and started walking towards the stables.

Now, the stables are on the farthest end of the palace. Between the Prison Tower Cluster and the Stables, stood the Palace Assistant Living Quarters. It was a secret known only to a few...so don't tell anyone. Out of those living in the Quarters....

not all are human.

......

Ethan knew today was the day. The Guards had too much food and they were sloppy in their work. The evening was darker than most evenings and the sounds outside his cell had dimmed, telling him the coast was nice and clear.

His throat itched and his feet were bobbing up and down with tension as he sat on the very edge of his cot. His eyes flitted from side to side. Three years, that was too much for an innocent to live in a legit Prison for the worst of the worst. His cellmates had killed people. Embezzled Wheel energy. But what had he done? Nothing, that's what. He had been a doctor three years ago, desperately trying to find a cure to the Mars Fever in his lab in the hospital.

So every antidote needs a little bit of the virus sample, right? And that's exactly what was in his lab when the ZPD rushed through the lab doors and locked his poor hands behind his back.

But this is the end, he won't take it anymore. Nader looked at him from the opposite wall and scoffed, "Hey shitstick, get yo' butt up and rub it on the wall for me will ya'? The stench of your piss stinks."

Ethan looked up and locked gazes with him before glancing at a big wet patch on the wall, "You're the one who pissed there."

Nader grunted, "Will ya do it or not?" he grinned from ear to ear and wiggled two thumbs, "Or do you want me to give that wedgie from yesterday?" he sang and cackled.

Ethan jumped up out of reflex after remembering the wedgie. Nader was huge with even bigger muscles and he had been in here for thirty years, making him bored with life. Ethan had found out when he was assigned cells with him that boredom can make a person scary too.

"I'll do it" he said. Then slowly again, "I'll do it." He walked towards the wet wall and gulped. His eyes saw a guard blankly staring out in front if his cell. Making sure, Nader couldn't hear, Ethan whispered, "Can I go to the bathroom?"

The guard didn't even turn his head, he just rolled his tongue with pre-recorded words, "Just piss in the cell."

"But I can't take a shit," Ethan countered. The guard's head finally turned like the knob of a hundred year old door and sighed. He fished for his keys and attempted to open the cell.

Nader saw that. He jumped and screamed, "Hey Ethan you shitstick!" Ethan looked back in haste and then at the cell door again which had opened wide. The guard stood, waiting for him to get out, cuffs dangling from his hand. Nader bounced front and attempted to punch Ethan and pull him back.

But Ethan, being lean and frail dodged Nader's shot and it hit the guard instead. The guard's face went red and bloomed like a tomato. The other guards abandoned their position and ran towards Cell no. 302.

Ethan stepped back slowly and once he didn't see any of the guards noticing him, he bolted, growing wings on his feet and flying like Mercury. His luck was short lived, by the time he was out of the entrance, a snitch prisoner tipped the guards and they switched attention to break out attempt instead.

Ethan ran towards the wall and tried to climb it, but failed. "Oh for, Zyka's sake, I made it this far...let me get through this..."

He looked around and there!

He saw a huge pot in which the guard's lavish lunch had been in. He dragged it and placed it beside the wall. A guard came and toppled the pot out of its position, but Ethan was already on top of the wall. He sat on top of the wall and looked at the thousands of helpless guards staring at him, their doomed careers flashing across their face. Before he jumped to the other side called Freedom, he screamed one thing out loud.

"I AM INNOCENT YOU NITWITS!" and he jumped.

...........

Isaiah saw Brooklyn from afar and he had decided to ignore her or even better, avoid her. But when he saw her standing in front of room with a foreign boy who doesn't look all that bad, Isaiah couldn't stop himself. He ran to meet her.

Isaiah and Brooklyn weren't dating. The maids knew that, their parents knew that, everyone knew that. They had just been really good friends since little kids. But sometimes, when Isaiah saw her talking about the things she love and the way she laughs when they both are alone, he wished things were slightly different.

So when Isaiah reached Brooklyn and saw her with Kayden, he almost pulled her from his bubble and held her by her hand. Brooklyn didn't even smile when she saw him. "This is Kayden, he is the new stable boy," Brooklyn introduced, glancing towards Isaiah's coat pocket to see if the book was still there.

Isaiah studied Kayden, "But we don't need a-"

"Can you show him to the stables?" Brooklyn interrupted and Isaiah nodded after a few seconds of staring at her in sad surprise.

Kayden was about to follow Isaiah when the room door behind them rattled.

...........

Ethan stopped short of his run at the back gate and hastily back-tracked to hided camouflage himself within the garden bushes, dark and black under the lone moon and the glittering stars.

The back gate was packed with guards to stop the runaway prisoner. He was no expert on breaking out, and he had no idea what to do now? Maybe the front entrance? No, that wouldn't work. Unless...

He had a disguise. The very idea of it came when he saw a maid carrying back laundry to her room. Most of the palace assistant were already in so the place was quiet just like he had guessed while sitting inside the cell. The cell, he had started to forget it already, what it felt like to be trapped because freedom was so good. He wasn't going back to that cell again, he'd make sure of it.

Tip toeing he pulled out from the old unsuspecting lady's basket the first thing he touched as she passed by the bush. Maybe she was supposed to wear glasses, because she didn't even turn around.

The old lady passing by there wasn't luck, I can tell you that, it was all planned. But Ethan thought it was luck and smiled with joy as he saw an overall in his hands, his perfect size. He slipped in to it, wore the black cap from the prison to cover his face, if the guard were looking and walked past the Cluster, past more bushes and into the hallways of the Palace Assistant Living Quarters.

He walked straight and briskly. By the time he reached the room at the very end, the one assigned to our two boys, Sam and Kayden, by the time he reached there, our man Sam stopped him. Ethan didn't look into his eyes, his heart pounding faster every second only thinking of the front entrance.

"Hey, you must be a construction worker around here," Sam guessed and looked around, "But there aren't any constructions...." he shrugged, "Anyway, have you seen my boyfriend?"

Ethan shook his head and attempted to walk past him when Sam stepped back and stopped Ethan again, "Tall, maybe a little shorter than you. Wonderful brown eyes, long wavy hair, a dazzling smile?" Sam asked, smirking between words despite himself.

Ethan looked down and shook his head again and pushed Sam to the side and continued his walk. He spotted a guard and he brought the cap closer to his eyes and quickened his steps.

From behind him, Sam's same voice yelled, "Oh there you are! Hey Kayden!"

Ethan looked up and saw the boy Sam had described and two other people with classy clothes. Rich, Ethan thought.

Sam ran past Ethan and hugged Kayden who received him with a huge smile. "Where were you? I didn't find you in the room, so I decided to go to the stables."

"I just went to check the-"

The locked door of the room rattled harder and the all looked up at it in slight fear. Ethan too, looked up and Kayden noticed him, his face...that black cap. His eyebrows raised he opened his mouth to speak. Ethan widened his eyes and glared at him and Kayden shut up, today wasn't the day to be a snitch.

Ethan tried to leave that little group but there right in front of him, two guards. The one he had seen before was here too. Shit, it was too risky to go past them. He had to wait for them to leave. Till then, maybe hang around?

Wait, he was a construction worker after all, according to his suit, he should try to fit in so that Guard doesn't suspect them.

Ethan removed his cap and tucked it under his arm and acted like he was scrutinizing the door. He casually pointed at it, "Who lives in there, m'lady?"

Brooklyn barely registered what he was saying. Her head was riling with information. Old legends, stories, and a document she found in the Locked Library two years ago, on one of her night sneaks. She never imagined they would be true.

"You don't want to know," was all she could say. Isaiah held her arm, "Brookyn, let's leave." She shook her arm out of his grasp harshly, "Don't tell me what to do?"

Kayden leaned forward mockingly, "Then what are you going to do?"

"I reckon it's an earthquake," Ethan added, shifting his black cap to the other arm and glancing if the guards were gone. They weren't.

Brooklyn joined her hands together and closed her eyes, muttering quiet words under her breath. Isaiah took a second to understand what she was doing, he tried to pull her arms again and whispered, "Brooklyn, no, please not here. It's the Forbidden Room. Why are you trying to unlock it?"

Brooklyn stepped her left leg back and took a stance, opening her blue masked eyes, "Because it wants to be opened, I can hear it from inside."

Everyone except Isaiah was confused about what Brooklyn was doing. "What is inside?" Sam questioned looking back and forth between the door and the Brooklyn girl.

This time, the door shook and one of its hinges came lose. All of them instinctively took a step back. Ethan looked past them. No guards. The entire area was empty by now, only the golden ceiling lights putting the Palace premises in the spotlight compared to the slightly dimmer garden lights.

Blue sparks shot from Brooklyn's hands and enveloped the lock. Ethan gasped, forgetting about escaping for a second. He had just witnessed blue light emitting from a human hand. How in the world? Which scientific realm was this?

Kayden and Sam were equally intrigued and stared at the lock slowly heating up, turn bright fluorescent blue and then boom!

The Forbidden Room's door swung open in a gust of wind from within and everyone flew back a few steps, not being able to withstand the energy.

The floor under them shook now. They all peered into the Room.

It was pitch black. Sam looked at Brooklyn, realizing she had the answer, "Seriously, what is inside?"

As if to answer his question, a purple spark clicked into existence at the far end of the dark room. Ethan's eyes shifted sidewise and noted there were no guards anymore. But before he could take another step and before Brooklyn could answer, the spark started popping as if in a chain reaction as it grew and kept on growing until...

some strange but strong force sucked them all inside the pitch blackness of the Forbidden Room and the door shut close with a loud bang that ricocheted through the empty halls along with what remained of their screams. It echoed and echoed until it was nothing.

Prince Atlas had realized something was wrong when he saw Sam and Kayden's room empty after sundown. He had sent Ryoko to check it out. She walked into the hallways of the Quarters and into their rooms, but past the Forbidden Room at which, if you look now, you'd think nothing had ever happened.