by Stuart Boyd
Chapter 8: The Attic
Stella felt her heart leap in excitement. At last! They were going to save her parents. She rushed to her room to pack her bag, but Tom chased behind her, trying to catch her up.
“Lunar tide? What does he mean by that? Do you think we’re really going to go into space?” he asked breathlessly. “I mean, isn’t all this getting really dangerous?”
“It was already really dangerous,” Stella replied. She didn’t know what else to say.
“Stella, listen! You could stay here, like Botwing and that Nostromus woman said, and let Dodds find this Greddylick thing,” Tom said.
“Even though I’d be staying, it’d just feel like I was running away, though,” Stella said thoughtfully. “Uncle Dodds thinks that I need to help, and he’s the only one who seems to care what happens to my parents.”
She stopped and turned to look directly at Tom. He looked pale and frightened and she began to feel sorry for him.
“Look, you don’t have to come, you know. I wouldn’t be doing any of this if I didn’t have to.”
“I’m not scared,” Tom said, shaking his head, although he still looked as if he were about to be sick.
“It’s just, what if Dodds is wrong and that Greddylick thing is really just waiting out there?”
“I don’t know whether this is the right thing to do. I just know that I need to do something. You heard what Uncle Dodds said. The Greddylick forces people to do what it wants by scaring them or hurting them. I can’t let it do that to people like my mum and dad just so I can stay hidden away.”
Stella went upstairs to her room to pack her things and found that Helix had gotten there ahead of her.
“I suppose it’s no use telling you to stay here either?” Stella asked him.
Helix just sniffed disdainfully at her suggestion and put his bowl in her bag. She knelt down and buried her face in his soft fur. Despite what she’d said to Tom, she was very afraid and was fighting an urge to burst into tears. Helix gave a gentle woof and licked her hand. Stella stood up and wiped her eyes.
“Just make sure you leave those jelly toys here this time.”
Dodds’s voice boomed down the stairs. “Get a move on! Follow the stairs up to the top. We’ve only got about ten minutes.”
Tom had already packed and was waiting for Stella outside her room.
“I wonder what all the hurry is about?” he said. “I don’t see why we can’t wait until morning?”
“I guess we’re going to find out,” Stella said, and Helix barked in agreement.
