The Middle Realm

by Alessia Mattei

  “You got them. Way to go gramp-- I mean, Patrick,” Griffin said as he walked up to the porch.

  “Thanks,” Patrick said.

  Ch. 53

  Well, we’re on our way. We’ve got the keys, now we just have to try to press the button. I know it’s not going to be easy because you really have to press hard on the button. I don’t know how we’ll do it, but I’m sure Patrick and Edgar can figure out a way. We thought we were safe until we saw a beam of light coming from the doorway we just exited. It was Paul. He had a flashlight in his hand. He was talking to himself.

  “Damn, pot. I really need to lay off the stuff for a while. I better find those keys and get the girl and guy out of the trunk,” he said.

  He didn’t realize it, but he kept passing right by it. Thank god. He was not happy. A couple of times he tripped over seemingly nothing. Thank you pot. After a while Jerry came out onto the lawn. He found they keys no problem. Shit.

  “Paul, I found they keys. Should we get them out of the car?” Jerry asked.

  “Yeah, go ahead,” Paul, said as he walked into the house.

  “You going to help me?” Jerry asked.

  “You can do it, just make two trips,” Paul yelled back.

  Poor, Jerry. I kind of felt bad for him. I know that what he’s done is beyond unforgivable, but having to take orders from Paul all the time must suck. He started to walk over to the car in which Emma and Alexander were locked in. He was mumbling something. I couldn’t quite pick it up, for some reason. When he reached the trunk he looked around to make sure no one was there, then he pushed the button. The latch popped open. Emma was still alive. Alexander is still knocked out. He had been hit pretty hard.

  “I’m going to take you into the house now. If you don’t listen, I’ll have to do something I’ll regret,” Jerry said, flashing the knife in his pocket.

  He helped her out of the trunk. I couldn’t believe how careful he was so as not to hurt her. He held on to her as they walked up to the house.

  “Great, what are we going to do now,” William said.

  “I don’t know,” Patrick said. I could hear the worry in his voice. He clearly thought his original plan would work. I don’t think he had a back up plan in place. He must have thought we would have been able to unlock the trunk and Emma could drive herself and Alexander home. I would really like to know why things seem like they are going to work out and then at the last minute take a nosedive into fail land.

  “I think I know where they’re going to put them,” Zooey said, “They will probably lock them in the closet by the stairs”

  “What makes you think that?” I asked, curiously.

  “That’s where they locked me,” she said.

  Oh, no. Look what happened to Zooey. I hate to say it but Emma and Alexander are really in trouble. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s true this time. I don’t know what we can do. Time is not on our side.

  “Savannah, we’re going to save them. I don’t know how, but we will,” Patrick said as he walked up to me and grabbed my hand. I wish I could believe him. Jerry soon walked through us. He was going to get Alexander. I was relieved to see that he was just as gentle with Alexander as he was with Emma.

  I think it is the soldier in Patrick that is so determined to save Emma and Alexander. He wanted to be the hero. He feels like he failed when he was killed in Normandy. I think he is trying to redeem himself. I can’t help but admire his determination. At the same time, I’m also saddened by the fact that Patrick feels he needs to redeem himself for something he had no control over.

  “What do we do now?” William asked.

  That’s a good question. What do we do now? Everyone just stared at each other. Well, Emma and Alexander are out of the car. That problem is solved. We would need to sneak them out of the house unnoticed. That would be impossible. Even if all of us worked together, there is no way we can pull it off. Patrick had an idea, though.

  “We need to find out if they could get out of the house on their own power. If they can, we can get them the keys to one of the cars. If we all work together, we might be able to hold off Paul and Jerry until Emma and Alexander are safely on their way home”

  “It sounds like a long shot, but at this point, we have to try something,” Edgar said.

  “Unless anyone has a better idea, I say we follow Patrick’s plan,” I said.

  No offense to anybody else, but I kind of trust Patrick a little more. He was in the army after all. If anyone would know anything about saving people, it would be Patrick.

  “If you think we should follow Patrick’s plan, raise you’re hand,” Edgar asked.

  I looked around and everybody’s hand went up. Yes. I turned to Patrick, who beamed with pride. It’s decided. We were going to hold off the two men while Emma and Alexander got away. Provided they can move on their own.

  Patrick divided the group up. William, Whitney and Camille were going to find at least one of the sets of keys, again. It didn’t matter which set, as long as they found one. Edgar, Patrick, Zooey and I headed toward the closet by the stairs. We walked through the kitchen. We found the door to the basement opened. The door to the closet was closed. It was probably locked as well.

  “It’s locked, as usual,” Zooey said.

  Of course Patrick had to see for him self that it was indeed locked. Go figure. He tried to see if he could get it open. He couldn’t. That’s when I came up with an idea.

  “Guys, one of us could go into the closet and make some noise. We would have to be loud enough that it would get their attention. They would unlock the closet to see what caused the noise. When they do, we could knock them down the stairs or something. I will tell Emma to grab Alexander and run,” I said.

  Patrick and Zooey looked at me. They seemed skeptical.

  “I don’t know,” Patrick said.

  “You come up with something, then,” I said, throwing my hands up in defeat.

  “Let’s try it,” Zooey suggested, “What do we have to lose?”

  Ch. 54

  Patrick eventually agreed. He called the rest of the group into the kitchen to tell them the plan. They already found Alexander’s keys. I was impressed. Now all we had to do was get Paul and Jerry’s attention. I went into the closet with Patrick. While he was making noise, I sat down next to Emma.

  “Emma,” I said, “you okay?”

  I know. Bad question to ask. Of course she was not okay. If she were, she wouldn’t be in the situation she was in currently.

  “As good as I could be,” she said, weakly.

  I explained the plan to her. She was all for it. When you’re as desperate as she is, you are willing to try anything. I don’t blame her.

  “Can you walk?” I asked her.

  “Yeah, I think so,” she said.

  “Can you hold up Alexander?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” she said, as she dodged a mop that was about to hit her on its way to the floor, “tell you’re boyfriend to be careful” I shot Patrick a look. He made sure not hit Emma or Alexander with anything.

  It didn’t take long for someone to come see what was going on in the closet. Patrick did a good job. A few minutes later the door opened with great force and the light switch was flicked on. It was Jerry, of course. Paul didn’t really do much other than smoke pot and yell out orders to Jerry.

  “I hope it’s not the rats again,” Jerry said as he started looking through stuff in the closet. Emma looked at him with horror on her face.

  After searching through the closet, Jerry stood in the doorway of the closet. This is when Patrick ran at Jerry. I think it’s cool that ghosts are capable of having adrenaline rush-like moments in which they are able to do amazing feats they normally wouldn’t be able to do. Jerry went flying across the kitchen.

  “What the hell,” Jerry yelled; he was in pain on the floor by the sink.

  Seconds later, Paul casually walked into the room, as if he had wandered in for a glass of water or a snack. He looked at J
erry on the floor. Then he looked at the closet.

  “What the fuck happened? You were supposed to be checking for rats in the closet, not taking a nap. Besides, you left the door open. Do you want them to get away?” Paul said.

  “I was in the closet looking through the stuff. I made sure to position myself so that neither of them could get away,” Jerry said from the floor, ”Then all of a sudden, something hits me with full force and sends me flying across the room”

  Paul was not buying Jerry’s story. Instead of asking if his friend was okay, he walked up to the closet to take a peek. He stuck his head in and looked around. He was not about to step inside the closet himself in case the same thing that happened to Jerry happened to himself.

  “Did you see anything strange?” Paul asked Emma.

  She shook her head.

  “The girl didn’t see anything strange,” Paul said.

  “I was hit by some invisible force. I don’t know what it was, but it knocked the wind out of me,” Jerry said, ”I think my leg is broken”

  Patrick waited for the right moment to strike. By now the rest of the group was in the kitchen. Edgar had Alexander’s keys by his feet, ready to kick to Emma. I was getting really nervous.

  “Jerry, are you high right now?” Paul asked.

  “No,” Jerry said.

  As Paul began pacing the room shouting questions at Jerry, Patrick waited until he was right in front of the open basement door. He ran at Paul at full force and pushed him down the stairs. It was effortless on Patrick’s part. Paul didn’t even know what hit him. He tumbled down the stairs like a rag doll.

  “Paul,” Jerry yelled.

  “Emma, get Alexander and get out,” I said.

  I watched as Emma slowly got up. Once she was up, she lifted Alexander to his feet. He was starting to come to. Slowly they made their way out the closet and into the kitchen. Jerry saw them and tried to get up. He couldn’t though because of his broken leg.

  “Paul, they’re going to get away,” Jerry yelled to his friend in the basement.

  There was no response. Jerry yelled some more, but still Paul said nothing. Edgar kicked Alexander’s keys to Emma. She bent down and picked them up. She put them in her pocket. Since Jerry would not be quiet, William and Edgar decided he needed to be shut up. So the two of them knocked a frying skillet pan that was sitting on the counter above Jerry onto his head. This kept him quiet.

  “Emma you need to get out of here and keep driving until you are as far away from here as possible,” I said.

  She nodded. She walked, actually it was more like semi-limped, through the house with Alexander and a ghost escort. Once she was out of the house, she unlocked the Jeep. She helped Alexander in the car and put on his seatbelt. She got in herself.

  “We did it,” Patrick said as he gave everyone around him a high five.

  “Thank you so much, you guys,” I said.

  “We were happy to help,” Camille said.

  “It was our pleasure,” William said.

  As we watched the Jeep pull out of the driveway and into the street, we noticed a young woman with long red hair smirking from the back window. It was the most evil looking smirk I had ever seen. We watched as Emma and Alexander drove away. I don’t think she noticed they woman in the back seat.

  “Was that what I think it was?” Edgar asked.

  “I don’t know?” Patrick said, “I thought she had been wiped out”

  Acknowledgements

  Wow, I can’t believe I did it. I wrote a book. It feels so cool to be able to say that. There is no way I could have done this alone though. There are many people who helped make this possible. Whether it is offering guidance in navigating the world of novel writing or just offering words of encouragement. These are the people who supported me the most. They are ones who believed in me no matter what. Without them, I’m not sure I would have been able to do this. With that I want to thank some very important people.

  First and foremost, I should thank the man upstairs for bestowing the gift of writing to me. He has helped me find my voice. I want to thank my dad, mom, my brothers Mike and Chris for their support and encouragement. I know it’s all I talk about, but you guys let me get it out of my system. Dad, thanks for getting it through my head that writing is as much a form of art as is drawing or painting. I’m no longer jealous of Mike’s artistic ability. By the way Mike, thanks for the amazing book cover. I want to also thank Nonn, Uncle Wally, Aunt Lynn, Darren, Aunt Paula, Nate, Nikki, Olivia, Natalie, Steve, Ella, Sara, Teria, Aunt Bruna and the rest of my extended family. I also want to thank those loved ones who have passed on to heaven, Nonno, Nonna, Grandpa Ado and Aunt Anita. Nonna, I know you weren’t able to see me finish my book, but you were there from the beginning and always let me know how proud you were of me. You always asked me how it was coming and you were always excited about it.

  I want to thank Professor Jim Young, my Creative Writing instructor from Macomb Community College. Thanks for helping me navigate the world of novel writing. Thank you for believing in my ability and me. I could not have done this without you. I want to thanks Kevin Zajac for the awesome editing he did. I also want to thank Ms. Pryor, my 7th and 8th grade English teacher at St. Thecla School. Thank you for helping me discover my love of writing. If I forgot anyone, I didn’t mean to. Again, thank you to everyone who inspired me and supported me on this amazing journey. I hope it continues on further. If it does, I hope you guys will be along for the ride. This is as much for you guys, as it is for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.