by Suzy Turner
It was just a dream, she thought as she gently tugged at Emma's arm.
'Emma? Emma?'
'Hm?' she mumbled as she came out of her snooze, pulling her knees up to her chest and sighing before she opened her eyes.
'Emma, it's time to go.'
Slowly opening her eyes, the sudden realisation of where she was hit her and she shivered.
'I thought I was asleep in bed, all cosy and warm. Bluh,' she said as Lana smiled.
'I know, I fell asleep too. You okay?'
She nodded as the two slowly stood up, stretched and dusted off their jeans.
'How long was I out?'
'I dunno, maybe twenty minutes or so?' Lana shrugged. 'Come on, let's find our way out of here. I noticed a door down here.'
Walking past the boarded up archways, Lana couldn't help but feel sad for the building.
As if reading her mind, Emma sighed, 'I bet it was really beautiful once.'
'I know, I dreamed about it when I nodded off. It was full of colour, deep azure blues and pinks covered these walls. Well, I dreamed they did anyway. It was used for balls with music played by harpists, violinists and harpsichordists, harpsichord players, whatever you call them,' she said.
'You've got one hell of an imagination, Lana,' laughed Emma as they reached the door.
Clearly it hadn't been used for a while. As they pushed against it, the door creaked and groaned, eventually opening just enough to let them pass through. On the other side was a massive curved staircase, opposite what appeared to be the main door to the building.
Choosing between the two, they decided to try and get outside, but the door was locked.
'Damn it,' tutted Lana as she leaned against a particularly dusty set of velvet curtains that hung on either side. 'Ew,' she shrieked when she realised it was covered in cobwebs.
'Get em off, get em off me,' she said dancing around trying to free herself from the sticky webs as Emma shook her head and tried not to laugh.
'Oh, Lana look out!'
But it was too late, Lana had bumped into a slender vase, knocking it to the floor with a smash.
'Eek, I hope that wasn't a family heirloom or something,' she said guiltily as she suddenly forgot all about the cobwebs in her hair, spotting something shiny lying among the broken pieces of porcelain.
Picking it up, she turned to Lana with a grin, brandishing a key in front of her.
Breathing in the fresh air as they stood outside, closing the door behind them, the girls looked around. Neither of them knowing the city, they had no idea where they were.
Hopping down the steps, they turned to look at the building they'd just left. It was impressive, with large columns either side of the door. But why was it so dilapidated? Surely a building like that in the middle of the city should have been restored to its former glory.
Shrugging her shoulders, Lana turned to face the road in front of them. 'Which way?' she asked.
'Down there,' Emma pointed.
'Any reason?'
'A few more taxis seem to be heading in that direction. I'm thinking maybe that leads back towards the centre? Maybe we can try and find our way back to Westminster from there, you know, back to the boat?'
Lana tried to smile as they began walking, hoping that they were headed the right way. She was getting tired of this initiation business. She just wanted to get back, have a shower to get rid of those horrible cobwebs and have something to eat before bed.
But it wasn't going to happen quite like that, because, before they'd even gotten to the bottom of the road, the sound of footsteps closing in on them startled them both.
As Lana turned to see who it was, she felt something sharp on her neck and Emma gasped loudly beside her.
'If you just do as I say, you won't get hurt,' said a man's voice as they were dragged down a dark alleyway to their right.
'Who are you? What do you want?' said Lana, her voice quivering.
Cruel laughter erupted from behind her as she realised there were two large men. Both had knives and both were holding them to their throats.
'Who are we? We're your new boyfriends, my love, that's who we are. And you're going to give us what we want.'
'And what's that?' cried Emma, but she already knew and she wasn't about to let that happen.
Both girls felt it at the same time. Something cracked within them. Glancing at each other, they smiled. They had no idea why they smiled, it just came naturally and before they knew it, they'd each grabbed the hand of their attackers and swung them round so they were facing them.
Now Emma and Lana stood, holding the knives in their own hands. Flinging them to the floor, the girls both kicked out at the thugs, doubling them over, before landing elbows first into their backs.
The two men fell to the ground, shocked expressions filling their eyes before a final blow was placed firmly across their cheeks, rendering them both unconscious.
Emma and Lana high fived each other and laughed loudly. 'Now that's what I'm talking about,' yelled Lana as they giggled to themselves.
Their laughter soon fizzled out when the reality of what just happened began to sink in.
'What just happened?' whispered Emma.
'I...I don't know... I think we... I think we kicked ass, Em,' she said seriously, holding her hand over her mouth.
'We kicked ass all right,' said Emma. 'Oh My God,' she said. 'We kicked ass,' she shrieked, turning to look at her sister, grinning.
'What should we do with them?' Lana asked.
'Tie them up, leave a note for the police and then let's get out of here,' she suggested. 'I can't believe I just suggested that but I meant it,' she laughed. An unusual feeling was fighting in her stomach, trying to get out.
'I love it. Let's do it,' said Lana as the same feeling twisted in her own gut.
Scrambling around the alley way, they looked for something to tie the men up with, but there was nothing remotely useful.
The sound of something dropping from above startled them but when they spotted a load of rope just metres from their feet, they shrugged at each other and continued.
Fifteen minutes later they walked away, leaving two thugs tied up to an iron railing. On their foreheads in dark purple lipstick were the words, 'Please arrest me. I attack girls.'
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The feeling that was making its way from the pits of their stomachs was one of pure elation. Once they'd walked away, it finally erupted as the girls began to walk quicker and quicker, laughing and dancing.
'Hey, I recognise that building over there. It's that theatre... Theatre Royal. This is Drury Lane! There's a cool show on there at the moment. I saw it advertised on TV the other week,' announced Lana as she rushed over to it with a grin. Do we still have the map?'
'Yeah but I don't know whether it survived the river or not,' Emma answered as she pulled it out of her slightly damp bag. The map, although damp, was still intact. Holding it beneath the street lamp outside the theatre, they eventually figured out exactly where they were in comparison to Westminster.
'That way,' pointed Lana as Emma folded the piece of paper and kept it in her hand as they walked down Drury Lane, with the pretty theatre behind them.
'If we head towards the Thames and then walk along the embankment, it shouldn't take us too long to reach the pier,' said Lana, hooking her arm through her sisters.
'Why do you think that happened back there?' Emma asked a little while later.
'Because those guys were just pure evil and wanted to take something precious from us. Something I'm keeping for the guy I love,' sighed Lana.
Chuckling, Emma shook her head, 'I didn't mean that! I meant us. Why could we fight like some kind of super ninjas? I never knew I had that in me. I mean, it just came so naturally. I just don't understand why.'
'Oh that,' Lana replied, her cheeks pinking slightly. 'I guess it's just something to do with us being Watchers, I guess.'
'Yeah I guess so, but why didn't they tell us we cou
ld do that?'
'Maybe they don't know. Maybe they don't know what we're all capable of until we've gone through the initiation. That's probably why we have to do it.'
'Hm, I suppose. But sending in horrible men to attack us? That's a bit much, don't you think? What if we couldn't fight? What if we were completely helpless? Those guys would have... would have...'
'No, they wouldn't. I reckon it was just a test. We would have been okay,' Lana reassured.
After a couple more minutes of walking in silence, Emma said, 'For the record... I'm keeping that precious thing for the guy I eventually love too.'
Lana smiled and squeezed her sister's arm as they walked the rest of the way in silence, watching the city around them.
As they finally spotted Westminster, they loosened their grip on each other and began to run towards the pier. On arrival though, they were greeted with something they weren't quite expecting.
'I should have known,' said Lana as she kicked the pavement.
'It's not here, the boat's not here,' whispered Emma. 'Where do you think it is?'
'Honestly? I have no idea. Now what do we do?'
Both of them sat down on the pavement in a huff.
'Maybe we need to get back to the Praxos house?' suggested Emma.
'Maybe... but do you have any idea where it is?'
Emma shook her head.
'Thought so. Me neither. Although...'
'What?' questioned Emma.
'Nah, it's nothing.'
'What, it might not be nothing.'
'When we were underground with Eleanor, didn't she say something about not being far from the British Museum?'
'Yeah she did,' Emma said as her face brightened.
'You're not meant to go back there just yet,' said a voice from behind them, making them jump up in fright.
'Josiah Grimshaw! You've got to stop creeping up on people like that,' scolded Lana. 'What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were supposed to stay away during the initiation?'
'I am but I just figured I'd come and give you a clue. It won't hurt,' he said innocently.
'Well?' Lana said, standing and tapping her foot impatiently on the pavement.
'Well what?' he said as she tutted. 'Oh, the clue,' he chuckled. When he looked at her face, he shut up immediately. 'Sorry,' he muttered, 'It's the boat. You're meant to find your way to the boat.'
'But how, Joe? How are we meant to do that?' Emma said as she, too, stood up and faced him.
A couple of people walked past, eyeing the girls as if they were mad.
'Did you see them, Jim? Those girls... they looked like they were talking to someone who wasn't there,' said the woman with curly purple rinsed hair.
'Just keep walking woman,' said her husband as they hurried away. The girls just heard him say, 'This city is full of weirdos.'
Emma turned to Lana and they both cracked up laughing, but when they turned back, Joe was gone.
'Great,' Lana huffed, 'Now what?'
Emma smiled, 'We do what he says. We find the boat.'
'But how?'
'I don't know, Sis. All I know is that we can and we will. If they believe that we can find it, then we should believe in ourselves too.'
'Okay,' sighed Lana as they turned to face the water. 'Which way was it facing earlier?'
'Left,' said Emma.
'Then left we shall go,' Lana said as she hooked her arm into Emma's once more and they began walking along the embankment, hoping that Declan and Saleena would appear.
But the further from Westminster Pier they went, the more they realised it wasn't going to be that easy.
'This is crazy,' Lana sulked, 'We have absolutely no idea where to go. Do you remember anything being said earlier? Anything about where they might have gone?'
'I would have told you if I had, Lana. Nobody said anything about it.'
Emma stopped suddenly in her tracks, deep in thought.
'What? What is it?'
'I just had a thought... remember when Eleanor was pointing out where some of the tunnels went off to?'
'Hm hm.'
'Well, she did say that one of them went underneath the Thames Barrier and Greenwich. I guess it is possible that Declan might have taken the boat down there. All other directions were on land within the city. What do you reckon?'
Rubbing her chin, Lana nodded briefly. 'That's a good point. And it's the only idea we've had so far. Let's do it. Let's head in that direction. It's going to be a long walk though. It'll probably take us all night.'
'Not necessarily,' added Emma. 'Why don't we swim?'
'You're joking, right? I nearly froze to death earlier.'
'But look how quickly I was able to de-freeze you,' smiled Emma. 'If you hold on to my back, I can swim really fast. We'll be there in no time at all.'
'I don't like it,' sighed Lana, 'But I can see that you won't take no for an answer. So okay then. But we need to find a hidden spot to get into the water. We don't want to be seen.'
Ten minutes later, the girls were swimming beneath the cold waters of the Thames. Coming up for air as often as possible so Lana could breathe comfortably. Soon afterwards, the girls had reached the Barrier.
Climbing out of the water, they found a hidden spot so Emma could warm them both up and dry them off a little. When they were comfortable enough to carry on, they turned back to face the water.
'There!' yelled Lana as she spotted a familiar boat moored just a little further downriver. Grinning, they ran towards it and climbed aboard happily.
'I can't believe it! We've found it,' sighed Emma as they looked for signs of their Mentors. But Declan and Saleena were nowhere to be found.
'Let's just have a quick shower and put some warm clothes on,' shrugged Lana as they walked down towards the back of the boat into their room.
'Where do you think they are?' Emma asked as she began to take off her shoes.
'Dunno. Does it matter?'
'Well, it's just a bit weird that the boat is here and they're not.'
'Can we worry about that after we've got cleaned up? I'll shower first. I think I'm colder than you.'
While Lana showered, Emma had a proper look around the boat, not having the chance to do so before. A door further down from their room led to Declan's bedroom, so she quickly shut it and turned around and faced another, smaller door. Opening it, she saw lots of shelves holding fluffy towels and a few dressing gowns. As she was closing it, she accidentally knocked one of the towels onto the floor. Picking it up and folding it neatly, she was about to put it back on the shelf when something caught her eye. Turning her head sideways, she bent her knees to lower herself a little and spotted something familiar behind the shelf. It was a little handle in the shape of an eye with wings.
'What are you doing?' asked Lana who had just stepped out of the bathroom and was towel drying her hair.
'Look,' pointed Emma.
'What is it?'
'Looks like a handle.'
'Pull it,' Lana suggested.
'What if it does something weird?'
'Whatever. I'm going to get dressed. You having a shower?'
But Emma was too intrigued to really take any notice of what Lana had said and so she put her hand out and gently tugged at the handle.
It was another door. A hidden door.
'Lana, come and check this out,' she said as her sister appeared fully dressed in clean, warm clothes.
'Oh wow,' she said, almost pushing Emma aside so she could step inside.
'Don't mind me.'
'Sorry Sis. It leads down to somewhere. You coming?'
Emma followed as they both stepped into the tiny room which contained a thin ladder leading downwards. Emma closed the door behind them and they walked down to the bottom where they were faced with a hatch.
'Well we can't open it. It'll flood the boat,' Emma said with a sigh.
'Not necessarily. It looks like one of those submarine hatch things that you see in the movies. It's got
something to do with air pressure or something like that.'
'So you want to open a hatch on a boat on the river based on old movies you've seen? Lana we're not even on a submarine. We're on a boat that doesn't belong to us. We can't sink Declan's boat on a hunch.'
But it was too late, Lana had taken it on herself to open it.
'Lana you're insane,' yelled Emma as she started running back up the steps.
When she heard chuckling, she turned back and peered down.
'See,' said Lana with her hands on her hips. 'It's a hatch that leads to another tunnel. This Praxos Foundation has certainly got everything covered. Come on, let's go.'
'But I never got to shower or get cleaned up,' complained Emma as Lana left her behind.
With her hands on her hips, Emma dropped her head backwards. Looking upwards, she let out a deep sigh before following her sister into yet another tunnel.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The tunnel seemed cleaner, more modern, like it had only fairly recently been built. There were a few lights overhead, some that flickered off and on every few minutes. They slowly walked through it, both wondering where it would lead them.
Emma let out a deep yawn.
'I know, me too,' answered Lana as she couldn't stop herself from doing the same thing. 'It must be pretty late. It's certainly been a long day. Hey, what was that?' she said as she stopped suddenly, putting out an arm to prevent Emma from moving further.
She pulled them both to one side of the tunnel.
'What?' whispered Emma.
'There's something down there.'
'Maybe it's just Declan.'
Shaking her head, Lana put a finger over her mouth to quieten her.
'No, it definitely wasn't Declan. I'm sure I saw glowing red eyes in the darkness down there. It didn't look... human, Em...' she breathed.
'That's crazy, Lana. What else could it be?'
