Lloyd stared blankly at
the ceiling.
“Did ya get all that,
pal?! We’re in some serious trouble
here!” Trixie yelled, with enough force to nearly shake the cell phone out of
his hand.
“…Eh? Wha?
Oh, my apologies, I wasn’t paying attention.”
He rubbed his nose. “I feel as if
it’s been almost two months since I was last in action…”
“DAMMIT, LLOYD! GET SERIOUS, WILL YA?”
“About what now? I’d like a summary, if you don’t mind.” He tilted his head a bit. “In case there’s anyone just joining us, or
someone has forgotten what last transpired.”
He tilted his head in the other direction. “Miss Walters, have you ever heard of the
fourth wall?”
Lloyd nodded and
stroked his chin. “It would seem as if you
had quite an adventure. A shame I missed
it, but I had some…” He looked around
the cafeteria -- at the sighing Lien-Hua, at the table-banging Sheila, and
the…well, the pretty-much-unfazed May.
“Let’s call them distressing affairs and leave it at that for the
moment; I’ll explain in full detail later.”
“Good idea. ‘Cause I ain’t done with my story just yet,
pal.” Trixie paused for a moment, though
Lloyd could still hear a mix between a groan and a sigh. “That guy -- Gaston Leroux, he called himself
-- he’s got some kinda crazy powers. He
turned the whole mansion upside-down while we were still in it…and then he
almost made the walls crush us.”
“My word! Are you all right?”
“I don’t think I’d be
talkin’ to ya if I wasn’t, pal.”
“So how did you survive? Did my father manage to strong-arm his way to
victory?”
“Nuh-uh. The walls just came at us, real
fast-like. And then the next thing I
know, I’m outside the mansion safe and sound.
Same goes for Patton. But JP…there’s
no tellin’ where he is.”
Lloyd gasped, and
gripped the phone tightly. “He’s gone
missing? He at least managed to escape
Gaston’s trap, correct?”
“Patton busted down the
door as soon as he noticed JP was gone.
But there was no sign of him, Gaston, or that grandma, Mrs. Overdose. Just a messed-up hall.”
“This does not bode
well.” Lloyd covered his mouth for a
moment, his brow starting to tense up.
“So in addition to a masked madman and his gun-toting associate, my
brother has gone missing. And without a
trace, no less, correct?”
“Yeah. Those two didn’t leave us a single clue. Patton’s runnin’ ‘round town on a rampage,
tryin’ to find out where Gaston or JP might be.
We were searchin’ together for a while, but we split up not too long ago
to cover more ground…and after a couple hours of lookin’ I ended up near yer
house. So I figured I might as well
check it out. Ya know, wait and see if
anybody showed up.”
“You managed to get in
without a key?” But Lloyd shook the
thought out of his mind. “No, that’s
unimportant; what matters most is that we recover JP from that dastard’s foul
embrace.”
“Yer sure?”
“Well, that seems like
the most obvious motion to take at the moment.
Did you think otherwise, Miss Walters?”
“Y-yeah, I did,
actually. I mean, this guy…you don’t
know him, do ya?”
Lloyd looked up at the
ceiling, humming for a moment. “I would
assume that I’d remember someone as unique
as this ‘Gaston Leroux’.”
“Just think about it
for a sec, pal. He’s a crazy,
Shakespeare-talkin’, over-the-top dandy.
And he’s got some kinda weird powers, kinda like the one ya said ya
got. Yeah, they’re real different,
but…ya know what I’m gettin’ at, right?”
Lloyd nodded
slowly. “Whether I’m aware of it or not,
there’s some sort of connection between Gaston and myself. And given that, it’s likely that he knows far
more about me than I of him.” He pursed
his lips for a second. “Perhaps my
father had the right idea in trying to leave town…but that’s inconsequential
for now. I’ll do all I can to find and
rescue JP -- and it would be my honor, Miss Walters, if you would lend me your
aid.”
“I-I don’t know how
much use I’ll be, but if ya need my help, ya got it.”
“Excellent. Then I shall return home as quickly as I can
fly. From there, we can focus on our
next act.”
“Right. I’ll see ya soon, pal.”
Trixie hung up first,
with Lloyd ending the call just a few seconds later. This is
certainly a quagmire, he thought, folding his arms. So, not
only do I have to find my missing brother, but engage this villain and put a
stop to his machinations, whatever they may be.
He couldn’t help but form a slight smile. Rather
fortunate, then, that I’ve just been expelled; with this newly-acquired free
time, I’ll have more than a few opportunities to pursue him.
“Lloyd? Are you going to be okay?”
Lloyd whipped around to
face Lien-Hua. Even though she’d been
fired, that did little to stop her from wearing a concerned expression -- as
expected of a young (ex-) teacher. “You
sound like you have quite the personal situation. You aren’t about to do something dangerous,
are you?”
“That may very well be
the case, Miss Zhang.”
Lien-Hua sprang out of
her seat, her hands pressed against the documents that had effectively ended
four high school careers. “Hey now! I may not be your teacher anymore, but I
can’t just sit and watch as you endanger yourself!” She opened her mouth to start yelling -- even
louder, no doubt -- but stopped mid-syllable and slid back into her seat. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout at you,”
she said softly, casting her eyes downward.
“I just…I don’t want to see anything bad happen to you.”
“I appreciate the
sentiment -- I truly do, Miss Zhang -- but your fears are misplaced.” He flashed a bright smile. “I’ll handle this with great haste -- and
then I’ll do all I can to have you reinstated as the school’s finest
teacher. That, I promise you.”
Lien-Hua’s eyes
widened. “Lloyd…”
“I’ll hear no
objections from you, my dear. All I ask
is that you wait patiently while I wrap up these affairs of mine. In an ideal world, I’d have this done in a
day -- but I suppose I should leave my schedule open a bit in the event of some
unexpected overtime. Nevertheless…” He fell to one knee, and lowered his
head. “I assure you, my word is as good
as gold -- no, platinum. No, super-duper
platinum.”
“Lloyd, that’s not
a…” But she stopped herself thanks to an
unforeseen giggle. “Thank you. It’s so nice to see such compassionate
students.”
“You would expect
otherwise from me? Need I remind you
that Passion was very nearly my middle name?
At least, that’s what I heard…in a dream…when I had food
poisoning.” He stared at Lien-Hua for a
minute. “The point is, it’s high time
for me to be a hero -- first for my brother’s sake, and then for yours.” He leapt to his feet, and started for the
cafeteria’s exit. “My regards, Miss
May! Miss O’Leary! I assure you, soon enough I’ll be your heroes
as well! Count on it, fair maide-!”
While waving back at
them, Lloyd crashed into the door. “Heh
heh, silly me. These doors don’t open
automatically.” He waved one last time
at the ladies just before making his exit.
As the door flapped
shut, May walked toward the ex-teacher, cradling a cockroach all the
while. “That guy’s a weirdo,” she
declared in what should have been a mumble, but loud enough to have the
head-banging Sheila nod in agreement.
“What do you see in him?”
Lien-Hua sighed. “The same thing every teacher should see in
her student: potential.”
“Soooooooooo…it’s not
love?” But before she could get an
answer, she held out a cockroach.
“Hey. Put this in your
mouth. It’ll be fun. I think.”
*
I need to act quickly, Lloyd thought as he headed down the school’s
front sidewalk. I’ll begin formulating my plan before I even reach home. And the first step of that plan is…!
…Er…um…go home! Yes! I mean NO!
Blast and confound it, this is going to be harder than I thought. He covered his mouth in contemplation. Gaston
Leroux…he may think himself a mastermind, but I wonder if that’s really the
case. Moreover, I wonder what he really
is. Why would he target my family? Did I do something to make an enemy of
him? Perhaps our clans engaged in some
sort of warfare generations ago? No,
inconceivable; I can’t imagine why anyone would want to make an enemy out of
me.
He kept walking,
stroking his chin as he walked in front of one of the school’s parking
lots. The lunch-ending bell had rung
minutes ago -- and in a minute more, the tardy bell would follow. Even with the last straggling students filing
into the school, cutting across lots and distant fields, Lloyd paid them no
mind. What he did pay mind to was the young woman moving between the parking
lanes, and carrying a hefty box of supplies and knickknacks -- one he
recognized immediately.
It’s Miss Zhang. And it seems
she’s -- oh, that’s right. I still have
her phone, don’t I? I’d best return it
to her before my adventure begins. He
raised a hand to hail her, and even started calling her name -- but he couldn’t
bring himself to speak, or even take a step toward her.
She opened the
passenger door of her van -- a muddy, dinged, dilapidated mess of a machine
that hardly looked like it could stay together, much less drive -- and leapt
back as a tsunami of junk fell out.
Lloyd’s eyes started bulging as his brain sorted through it all --
hangers and towels and blouses and dresses, pots and pans and hot plates and
long-emptied bags of ice, hollowed-out bottles and blankets and wires and
brushes, a blow-dryer and pillows, a hose and a map, and something looking
eerily similar to a baseball bat. And
none of it looked very clean.
What in the name of…?! Lloyd,
with mouth agape, watched as Lien-Hua scooped up all the junk and -- with what
had to be superhuman strength -- shoved it all back in place with a few quick
tackles. Of course, that only invited
him to look at the van’ interior; in addition to the junk in the passenger’s
seat, he could make out the garbled, shambling mess in the rest of the
vehicle. For a moment, he thought he
spotted a tentacle squirming inside. Miss Zhang, what on earth would possess you
to live like this?!
Wait a minute. Don’t tell me…she
can’t actually be living in there,
can she?
TO BE HEARTINUED…
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