The Key and the Broken Wing Final Edition

by Jessabell Tales

  Chapter Nine

  Frihyl lay around a small bay of hard sandunes that lay streamed with many birds.  The soft coloured sand drifted over the top of the concrete ramps joining the clean estuary where many fishing boats came in to land.  A small bright sun dazzled over Kimberley who stood against the wall that was separating her from the bay and its coastal sand.  She put her dark black sun glasses on and looked at the white boat that had come in.  By now she had changed into a long white crinkled top and blue jeans.

       "Jezzabell," she spoke with open arms. Jezzabell ran up to her.

       "Kimberley, I had to leave my wing behind," She said.

       "You’re late and who are these lads, Kimberley glared into Daniels' face.

       "This is Daniel," Jezzabell smiled at him, "And this is Slinks his friend. They stopped me from flying with a broken wing," She said.

       "You cannot fly with a broken wing; you silly thing. Thank you for looking after my cousin,” Kimberley pulled a note out of her pocket and handed it over to Daniel.

       "I cannot accept," he handed it back to her.

       "Please, take it to the Geshmermaids fish farm and buy some food," Kimberley said. She pulled it out of Daniel’s hand and pushed it into Slink’s green plastic bag.

       "Kimberley, Aunt Chemichalas will be furious with you.” Jezzabell paused. "She was going to use it for the ceremony in winter,”

       "What ceremony?" Daniel asked

       "We have to go to the caravan park," Kimberley grabbed hold of Jezzabell’s' left arm and started to pull her away from him. “Jezzabell, you will have to work as soon as you get to the place. Your really late," Kimberly abruptly spoke.  He realised that he had touched a raw nerve. For he and his mate knew nothing about the Butterflies. He even knew less about his new found friend Jezzabell. Although he had only spent half a day with her he wanted to be with her. Jezzabell broke free, she turned round and waved. Kimberley ordered her to carry on walking. Jezzabell stood still waiting for a signal. A sign of goodbye but Daniel did not wave back.

  “Jezzabell!,” Kimberley shouted. Jezzabell turned round.

  As they walked further along the calm sea front, Daniel and Slinks slowly followed them.

  "She's in trouble,"

       "Shut up Slinks," Daniel wandered behind them.

       "Leave us alone," Kimberley shouted back.

       "Hey, wait, what about the gifts! Come to our party tonight," Daniel invited them. Kimberley whisked round with Jezzabell and she threw a diamond into the sky. The sky began to fill with clouds.

  “It’s going to rain. We need to find the café on the voucher,” Slinks said and it rained. Both of them, Daniel and Slinks headed for cover near the shabby shelter that use to be a stop for the miniature steam train that use to ride along the promenade.

       "I'll see you again," Jezzabell said. She did not pull her arm out of Kimberly’s' arm, her calm fast footsteps along the quiet and deserted promenade began to slow up as more people came along in both directions. The rain might have been falling down on the two lads but for everyone else it was dry and warm.

       "No you won't, you have too much to do," Kimberley let go of Jezzabell' arm.  She turned round to see other people walking down to the captain who in the distance appeared to be loading bottles of wine. 

  A large black and white whippet shook itself near Jezzabell and the wet drops hit her face. She wiped them off with a white tissue and she stroked the dog. 

       "Lucky," a man whistled and the whippet ran toward its owner.

      

       ***

       The evening sun shimmered over the low tide that seeped in. Its little waves hardly crashed the large sea walls and there right in the middle of the sandunes laid the very same path that Krome had flown through. This time everything looked different, the cheering rabbits with their children stood in a straight line, their whiskers twitched as the smell of the sea air breezed past them and their wide brown eyes winked at the swerving swans who were settling in for the night. Its bushy shrubs and spacious flowers had shrivelled up into mangy black and yellow leafs. Not a single one looked bright enough to entice Jezzabell in and she stepped back.

       "Come on Jezzabell," Kimberley pulled her inwards, away from the dead flowers and they entered a gravelled circle. Around them were five jagged stones, all tall, large and pointed up at the dark rain clouds that were coming in. Their dark grey and tinted brown ridges revealed more dark patches of stone but then, then the two large seagulls who worked for Krome squawked high up on the curved rooftop.  These stones appeared to be in a zig zag line. As the pair of them moved along the path they could see a heap of sand that the sea had brought over the sea defence from its stormy days.  Every step they walked, more and more clouds covered the blue sky.

       Jezzabell's face began to turn white, her arms began to shiver in the cold and she jumped over a small rabbit whole.

       Ring, Ring!  Went two cyclist that rode straight past them over bridge and into the land where they could see the two men cycle into the busy road. Jezzabell stood and watched the cyclist disappear across the road that lay far away.

       "I can't work for you, Aunt Chemichalas doesn't like me working in dark places," Jezzabell said. Kimberley went behind her and pushed her over to the white, wooden bridge.

       "You will work here, and Krome," Kimberley paused pushing Jezzabell onto the bridge. Jezzabell  didn't want to move any further, for her eyes were beginning to awake to fear, a fear that was going to land her into danger but, then the mother swan glided over her head and landed onto the soft lake that was beginning to turn green. It bowed its head at her and swam towards the curved building.

       "Monarchs Stings, venom and power," Jezzabell read the sign that Krome had painted.

       "Krome developed this base, we had to change the name.” she looked up, down and pulled Jezzabell closer to her. “Us Monarchs are trying to create a formulae to turn everything dark,” she patted Jezzabell’s' shoulder. "Just like them plants, I cannot have cheery flowers on his base, but we will keep the green grass to fool the ongoing fair and their silly yobs," Kimberley finished her sentence. Jezzabell was about to stamp on Kimberly right foot when she herself pushed Jezzabell onto the old bench that lay with gold cloth.

       "I will complain to my aunt about you," she huffed.

       "Your Aunt isn't coming, we sent her on a wild goose chase," Kimberley laughed.

       "Help!" Jezzabell screeched. The background noise to the large generators that hosted the noisy rides filled the sound with boisterous music and her voice got drowned out with the yelling teenagers who were being thrown up into the air by the tall sky machine.

       Jezzabell leaned her feet up on the bench and curled under her coat, she began to shiver.

       "Ah, you brought a slave for me,"

       "Krome Monarch, this is Jezzabell," Kimberley stood looking at her cold face.

       "Bring her in, she needs to be warm, all butterflies need to stay warm, even us," he waved his arms up and down. "Get up young one," he ordered her. Jezzabell lifted her feet off the bench, stretched her back against the bench and leaned herself up. Still her cold hands and feet prevented her from getting up and Kimberley pulled Jezzabell off the bench quickly grabbing hold of her waist so she would not fall onto her knees.

       "No struggle young one, she must be tired. Take her to the prison and let her sleep," Krome said.

       "Daniel ,Slinks," Jezzabell’s; eyes closed. Krome’s' puzzled face lightened up and then the stars that had appeared dropped into his hands.

       "I'll tell you about them after I have finished putting this slave to sleep," Kimberley said and she dragged Jezzabell into the building.

            "Now, you can't escape Jezzabell, the
building is surrounded by water,"

       “I can’t fly," Jezzabell yawned sitting down in the dark.

       "Dare to escape and you will never see your friends again. I will make sure that you work with your awful cousin Brade in Scotland. Kimberley placed a white pillow under Jezzabell’s sleepy head. I will pick you up tomorrow morning, as long as it isn't raining," Kimberley insisted.

       "Raining, its cold, how can I work in this cold," Jezzabell whispered into her ear.

       " I am not arguing with you Jezzabell, get some sleep!," Kimberley spoke.

       Clunk, chink, Clunk! Went the keys in the door and Jezzabell listened to the fading footsteps.

     Jezzabell’s eyes closed. 

       "Ah, ouch, my foot, turn the light on, please," spoke a man’s voice. Jezzabell leapt up from the pillow and she started to wander around the room. Slowly she placed her hand onto the warm dark wall and stepped sideways. Her hands went up and down the smooth dry paint. She  and the other man in the dark room, were unable to look at each other because all of the towns lights were out, even the building that they were in was pitch black, not even a shadow from the glass windows helped to give them little time to see what they were doing.

       "I found, oh, wait, it’s a pipe, round, a switch,"

       "No, do not touch that, you will get us killed, it is a switch to explode the dull place up," he replied.

       Jezzabell let go of the tiny knob and slid over to the other wall where a small corner hid a large a glittery door. It began to lighten its small narrow and round outline. She placed both of her hands onto the door and slid down onto the floor. As she got on to her knees her wing pushed one of the light tables away from her.

       "Door handle is not there," she mumbled.

       "To your right, the builder created a door with a right hand lock, the key should be in it," he said. She moved over to her right, she grabbed hold of the freezing key and twisted it clockwise.  It would not move and parts of the glitter that was glued to the door stuck to her hands, created a streak of light.  The light moved up and down, around clockwise and anticlockwise and then, she looked at her hands. She placed her hands over the spot where the lock was and gave out a sigh.  The key that she was trying to turn had another small key attached to it with string hooking it up in the middle of the U shaped space of the old, rusty key.  She pulled the jagged key out with brute force and caught it before it dropped. She placed the other key in and gently turned it anticlockwise.   She pulled the thin white handle down and moved back.

       "What’s in here?" she asked.

       “Store cupboard with lighting system," he said.

       "Ah, I am too young to touch that system," she excused herself.

       “Where are you? I can’t see you, my foot’s broken," he spoke again.  The shadow of his foot flickered against the chairs.

       Jezzabell crawled into the narrow space that the door had jarred open. She found the small gap between the door and the floor. She then pushed the door wide open until it wouldn't move. 

       "It’s jammed, If it closes on me, get me out of here quickly," she spoke.

       "My foot hurts, I can’t walk on it but I will crawl towards you," he agreed.

       She went further into the small cupboard and gazed at the green glitter, it was everywhere. On the burnt out shelves of books, toys and games; blue and green pens were dazzling around and underneath the small shelf of notebooks lay an open box with black square switches.  She lay on the floor of glitter and looked up at the system.  Its four switches were down and the last round switch was up. She squinted her eyes trying to read the words pasted above each switch.

       "Which one is it?" she shouted.

       "Not sure, I am not an electrician," he replied.

       Jezzabell whipped the remaining glitter of the top of the box only to get more on her and her hair flipped in front of her eyes. She huffed in shear frustration and pushed it back.  She leaned up against the cool wall and looked at the tiny lines of writing.  

       "Hurry up,” he said.

       She lay back on the floor, closed her eyes and pressed the only switch that was up, down.

       "No," she hummed to herself as none of the lights came on.   She flicked all of the switches back up and then the small cupboard brightened up.

       "Turn them off, you have just turned the outside lamps on," he spoke aloud.

       "Outside, inside and middle," she read the writing on the top of the box lid. 

       "One, two," she whispered and the lights outside on the decks lit up.

  Jezzabell came out of the cupboard and pushed the door back into its original groove. Panting she looked up to see Kimberley staring at her.

       "Get up, away from that cupboard," Kimberley spoke. Jezzabell stood up and she ran over to the policeman who was now leaning against the boarded window. His left boot lied next to him and his foot was red and swollen.  As Jezzabell sat on the chair he quickly moved his bad foot away from her. Jezzabell watched him frown as his foot touched the floor. She picked up his boot and placed it on the table making sure that he could not put it back on. 

       "Give me my shoe," he said.  Jezzabell began to rub her hands against the untied laces. The loose glitter that had stuck to her hands fell in to the rest of the boot.     "The other boot, I need to heal the other foot as well," She whispered. He pulled the boot off and threw it toward her. As she jumped up to catch it he pointed his finger at her long sparkling wings and then he pointed at Kimberley.

       "Yes. We are butterflies. Some of us make a living being evil and others like Jezzabell, here like to be sensible, pretty and of course helping to save Frith Le Firth. It’s such a shame that we aren’t related.  Kimberley laughed.

       "Kimberley, if he tells the others, we are,"

       "He won’t be alive for when you turn into a Monarch, you can destroy him,” Kimberley stepped away from them.

  Jezzabell shook her head.

  “We aren't doomed, we are Monarchs, the more dangerous species of the butterflies, and she walked toward the door holding the keys that once lay in the cupboards keyhole.

       "Let him, go," Jezzabell said

       "He cannot walk, he will not be able to go far in this windy night, look, the swans and the rabbits are hiding behind that bush," Kimberley protested.  Jezzabell nodded her head, she continued to rub her hands against the other boot and the remaining glitter that lay on her hands fell into the boot.  She was about to run for the open door when Kimberley flew over to her; she placed nine green stars in a line just above Jezzabell' Head.  They lit the room up even more and then she gasped at Jezzabell's faint wing.

       "Growing wing dust, you used all of it to heal yourself, she tried to grab Jezzabell’s arm and the stars bounced her back toward the open door.

       "I don't know what you’re talking about, if you want to find some, it, it’s inn that cupboard,"Jezzabell spoke stepping away from the stars that were multiplying around her and the policeman. She pointed at the cupboard, daring Kimberley to go back in.

       "How can I, I cannot touch you because the stars forbid you to go out of the line. I know what you’re doing. If I went into that cupboard you would shut me in and run for help," Kimberley revealed Jezzabell’s plan. Kimberley’s furious face turned away and the wings slid into her body. The door slammed and it all went black. The lights outside popped leaving the only light of the moon to shine through the windows.

       But, but they were no longer left in the dark as the policeman’s boots shined amongst his uniform and Jezzabell's healing wing lay in dazzling, green glitter. They could see each other; still the policeman looked terrified of her.

       "Your feet will heal, my wings will take a while to heal, " />
       "Jezzabell, Kimberley spoke about you and your Auntie," he interrupted her.

       "Yes and your," she needed a name

       "I’m the policeman, call me George," he muttered.

       "Why didn't I just stay with Daniel and Slinks," she sighed looking down at his shiny boots.

       "Daniel, are they your Friends," he asked.

       "Yes, I hope they find me, she paused and jumped onto the table that was near the top window.

       "You will fall," he urged her to come down.

       "No, if I get some of this wing to the birds, perhaps they will bump into Daniel, Daniel will know I'm in trouble," she tugged at her  wing.  The policeman slowly stumbled up to her, He picked a small pair of brown safety scissors he had found in the room. He held his body against the old warm radiator that had not been used for years, and then he cut a tiny triangle shape out of her glittery wing. The scissors fell out of his hands; they bounced off the floor and slid under the cupboard door.   He placed it into Jezzabell' hands and wiped the odd bits of glitter that lay on his hands against his shirt. She folded the wing in half and kissed it.

       "Please,” she paused closing her eyes. "Take this growing wing to Daniel and Slinks," she opened her eyes and kissed it. The wing howled and she slid her open hand out of the window and let go of the broken wing. 

       "It might not get there. The cleaners will pick it up and throw it away. If I had my radio I could call for help," he spoke in disbelieve. She jumped down off the table and walked into the centre of the room.

       "One of them will fly off with it," she said.

  “One of who?,” he asked.

  “The birds,” She replied.

  “They’re all working for Krome,” he grumbled.

  “I have hope, not everyone’s evil, I don’t know anything but Krome but he loves to create danger,”Jezzabell pondered. She helped George down onto the chair and placed the pillow she had slept on under his swollen foot.

  “Daniel will find us,” she sighed watching the policeman fall asleep.

  ***