Act Five: The Hotline
In the library spirits were talking amongst themselves. “Good thing we didn’t get captured.”
“I forgot what its like to be outside of a book.”
“You think we can make a deal with the Princess for freedom?”
“Ha, her let us free, we had a better chance with that crackpot bookseller.”
The spirits laugh, then it stopped when they heard footsteps.
Princess and Ashton arrive back at Ms. Woo’s bookstore. “Ashton continued containing the spirits, I’m going to seal this place off,” Princess told Ashton. She produced spear, went from corner to corner of the location, dragging the spear along the ground. As she dragged the spear, a crackling noise is made, to be joined with a luminous purple light and gust of wind from the pressure of her magic. Spirits cried as they were being severed by the Princess’s magic, from the light came smoke in shapes of deformed ghost. “Ashton, come here and get behind me, some spirits are trying to escape.” Ashton flew over and captured the spirits that are being pushed out by Princess. She watched the jar get blackened rapidly, “She sure has a collection.”
Ashton commented; “Do you think she…”
“Yeah,” Princess answered coldly. Her words brought a chill to the air. “There must be a big opening over here somewhere.”
A spirit in an attempt to escape phased through Ashton taking the fire out of him, into Timothy’s town. Ashton fainted, the Princess shook him, “Wake up.” She shook him more intensely, Wake up!” She looked at the rift formed in the library and said to herself, “They’re on their own.”
Ashton rolled over to see the rift, sighed to realize he did not have any fire in him. “What hit me?”
“Oh, you’re up! A spirit got you; it went into that rift.”
“Isn’t that the town where the boy is from, we should go. Plus, I need to get my fire back,” he said getting up.
“I’ll guess we’ll do this later.”
Timothy woke up before his alarm went off. His eyes adjusted to the darkness; the mint blue numbers changed to the targeted number for the alarm. The dings formed into a beep from outside the room. It is the fire alarm and Ashton reminding him one more day. “Hurry up time is running out, one more day.”
The alert was registered, and he weaved the threat into the sound. “Please tell me you pressed a button and didn’t set anything on fire!”
“Look around, you’ll find your answer.” Ashton’ face faded into the shadow on the door.
Timothy ran to his living room and did not see any fire but smelled something burning from outside his front door, “You didn’t, I had a day left!”
“Humph, you slept a bit too long.”
Timothy opened the door to see Roscoe’s house razed. His eyes stared into the fire, black encompassed the orange. Two orange splotches are left then they fade away with the black. Mint blue numbers change to the time of the alarm, and it rang. He hit the button, the noise stopped, and it went silent. His eyes took in the sunlight from the cracks in the blind. Opening the door, more sunlight crept into the house, he peered around his home looking for Ashton, using his phone’s flashlight. Then he got that reminder that he has been waiting for, a text from Barry. “I know we have to find the girl, give some good info,” he said to himself. A follow up text appeared on his phone, he read it aloud to himself, “Ask Roscoe about…” he halted his reading to comment,” What the fuck?”
After he put on his street clothes, Timothy knocked on Roscoe’s door. A woman answered the door from behind, “Who are you?”
“I’m Timothy and I was wondering if Roscoe was home, he was helping me with something.”
“Oh lord, the fiends done found our house.”
“Ma’am I am not a fiend; I am just here to ask Roscoe a question.”
“Aren’t you a bit young to be a homeboy.”
“Uh, I don’t know what you are referring to, I just really have to ask him an important question about Ms. Ancer.”
“You can ask me the question,” the woman gave him attitude, opening the door, to reveal a fair skinned skinny lady with a neck tattoo of flowers and a corner lip piercing.
Timothy sighed, the release of air from his mouth blows into the woman’s face stronger than usual, flickering her lip ring. “If you see Roscoe, tell him the kid across the street needs to talk to him.”
“Excuse me!” Her voice echoed.
“Uh oh, that doesn’t sound good,” Timothy turned around and the woman had the same possessed look Gloria had in the bookstore on her face. He turned back around and ran away.
The woman screeched, “Ms. Ancer!”
Roscoe peeked out his window to see his girlfriend going berserk. He rushed out to the front of the house, “Babe, what’s the matter?” He laid his hand on her shoulder.
The girlfriend brushed his hand off her, “Who is Ms. Ancer?”
“She’s the psychic lady in town, did Tim come by here, I swore I heard little dudes voice.”
“What business do you two have?” the girlfriend closed in on him.
Roscoe bent backward, then stepped back to put space in between both of them to answer, “He is looking for his cousin Giselle.”
The word Giselle triggered something in the woman, “Giselle?” Her head tilted to the side, “That’s the girl the boy is supposed to bring home,” two voices from the woman said.
“Why do you sound like that?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The woman kicked Roscoe in the groin, “Ms. Ancer!”
When the woman departed and Roscoe gathered himself, Timothy came back. “Are you okay? I saw her give you a good shot.”
“Were you just here?”
“Yeah, and your girlfriend was going crazy, she possessed.”
“I know she’s crazy but possessed is a bit much.”
“No, she’s possessed, I just finished being around some possessed people yesterday and they had the same look on their face. I can try to get her back to her sense, but you have to come with me to Ms. Ancer’s hotline.”
“I got you, just give me one second, I have to get something, just incase something pops off,” Roscoe went back into his house.
“I’ll meet you in the middle of the street,” Timothy rushed back into his house to get something.
Both of them met in the middle of the street, “What did you get?” Timothy asked.
“Don’t worry about, you’ll know, if we have to do some dirt.”
The answer gave Timothy a bad impression, “Oh boy…” he texted Gloria and Barry requesting them to meet up at Ms. Ancer’s hotline.
Gloria made a phone call to Lucille, “Hey, I am going out to see some friends, “If you want to come along, I will meet you at the park.”
“Sure!” Lucille answered eagerly.
Both girls met at the park, “Where are your friends?” Lucille asked.
“They are at Ms. Ancer’s hotline; we should meet them there.”
As the girls walked to the hotline, Gloria once again probed Lucille’s brain for information, “So what time is the event tomorrow?”
“It’s at noon. Did you want to come?” Lucille invited.
Gloria took a deep breath, “Yeah, I’ll go.”
“So, what made you change your mind?”
“I want to know what makes my friend interested in the group…”
“Aww, you consider me a friend?”
“Yeah,” Gloria answered. “So…” She stopped herself.
“So, what?”
“It’s nothing, you might have to do a lot of running today, I hope you are up for it.”
“I’ll try my best.”
The crazed woman went to Ms. Ancer’s hotline in a frenzy. She banged on the front door, “Open up!” Roscoe was trailing behind her trying to calm her down and behind him was Timothy, Gloria, Lucille, and Barry.
“Barry, it’s your job, we have to stop her,” Gloria said.
“Yeah, I’m going to stay over here, I can’t be around when the place goes up in flames.”
“What, why not?”
“They fired me… and I don’t want to be an arsonist candidate, so you guys let me know how it goes.” Barry turned away, “If it is any consolation, I know you guys will not be inside the building when its...”
“That’s helpful,” Timothy said sarcastically.
“Good luck, call me after you finish here.”
The woman kicked the door open, “Ms. Ancer, where are you?”
“Uh, are you guys going to deal with that crazy lady?” Lucille asked.
“Crazy lady! What do you mean? That’s my girlfriend!” Roscoe replied.
Lucille tensed up, “Uh, um, sorry I didn’t mean it like that… It’s just that…”
Timothy cut her off from stumbling over her words, “Maybe you girls should go with Barry; me and Roscoe can handle this.”
Inside the hotline the girlfriend was greeted. “Excuse me miss!” a worker called out. The girlfriend turned her head and tilted it. “Can I help you?” the worker inquired.
“Ms. Ancer!” Heat came off her voice; then she registered that the worker was a man. “You’re not Ms. Ancer.” The r in the woman’s name growled out her mouth.
“Uh…”
“Where is she!” the girlfriend looked around quickly.
The worker slowly approached her, “Miss, maybe I can help you. Are you here for a reading?”
“A reading?” Her neck turned ninety degrees; “I’m not some kid, you don’t have to read to me!”
“Kid?” they both said.
“Miss, what are you talking about?” the worker asked.
“The lost girl. You do readings for kids right?”
“Uh no, we do readings for adults…” the worker said confused; “I think you might be in the wrong place,” he tried to dismiss her.
Ms. Ancer overheard the conversation somewhat, the only words that registered with her were kid and reading. As if a dollar sign went off in her mind. “Are you here for a reading ma’am?”
“Are you Ms. Ancer?” the girlfriend asked. The r growled out once again.
The danger registered with the business owner, “Uh, who are you?”
“I am looking for the girl.”
“We don’t have any girls here…”
“Don’t you read to kids?”
“The readings we do are for adults.”
“Why are you reading to adults?”
Ms. Ancer looked back at her employee and came back to the girlfriend, “We are a psychic hotline, that’s what we do…”
“You know where the girl is!”
“Ma’am we do not know where any girl is.”
“Giselle, does that ring a bell!” A stream of flames projected from her mouth into the ceiling. Immediately the structure got weak the ceiling coughed up a pillar of wood.
The wood put space in between the girlfriend and Ms. Ancer, paralyzing the staff. The fire alarm snapped them out of the trance, and they went to evacuate the premise. “Everyone get out, we have a fire!” Ms. Ancer cried out.
Along with the girlfriends temper the temperature rose by a tremendous amount. “Ms. Ancer, Giselle, Ms. Ancer, Giselle, where are you!”
Parts of the ceiling rained down on the girlfriend but cause her no harm, the flames keep her from damage.
Ms. Ancer evacuated her workers. The phones started to spark from the heat produced from the girlfriend, the items slowly rang before the explosion. “You can’t go in there!” Ms. Ancer yelled out to Timothy and Roscoe.
“We have to stop that lady,” Timothy replied.
The girlfriend roared out flames cracking the windows in the building. “I’m calling the fire department, you’ll die if you stay in here,” the owner said.
“I’ll take that risk.”
The males charged into business.
Somewhere out in the streets, the trio that abandoned the hotline were conversing, “So how did you get fired?” Gloria asked.
“I helped Timothy for free.”
“Really, they fired you for being helpful. They didn’t even give you a warning.”
“Nope it just happened. Ms. Ancer loves her money.
“You know that genuine action would appeal to us in the Loving Hands Friendship House,” Lucille added.
“I’ll pass on that offer. We should watch from a high place.” Barry led the girls to a steep hill in the town. After a strenuous climb up the incline Barry took a deep breathe and exhaled, “This should be a good place to watch…”
“I don’t see any smoke.” Lucille commented.
“That’s good.” Gloria and Barry both replied.
“Are you sure we’re high enough?”
Barry palmed his face, “Yes, I’m sure we’re high enough.”
Gloria on the other hand in her concern gave Lucille’s comment some thought, “Maybe we aren’t high enough.”
“What, do you want to go onto a roof of a building and watch?” Barry asked. He gave a second for a reply and continued, “You know maybe the place is not on fire.”
“Yet,” Gloria added.
“Maybe the vision changed because or action cha, ch…an…ged…” his face felt fuzzy. “Because the events I see are ba…” he stopped short, he had a vision of a phone call.
“Guys, I see some smoke now,” announced Lucille.
“And it starts,” both Barry and Gloria said.
Barry got a call from Ms. Ancer, as soon as he picked it up, he could hear yelling on the other side, “I know you did this!”
“No, I didn’t, it’s probably an angry customer.”
“You did this!”
“Oh boy, get off my line you bitch!”
“Why did you want today off today?”
“Because I was going to a party.”
“Celebrating the burning of the hotline?”
“No, the burning of a witch!” he hung up.
“Was that your boss?” Gloria inquired.
“What do you think.”
The plumes of smoke had converted over into a blaze.
“The fire is huge now; we have to go back!” Gloria panicked.
“Go back and do what? They make it out in my vision.”
“Barry, I need to see that they are okay, from my vision.”
“I just can’t go back.” Gloria huffed. “But I will help you when it’s time for the other thing for sure, I don’t have any connections or hang ups on that.” Gloria grunted and slapped him; “I know I deserve that but call me when this is all over.”
Gloria sped up with Lucille trailing behind her.
On his way to the Loving Hands Friendship House Duke saw the hotline on fire. The sight of the flames made him shudder in familiarity. “Oh boy.” Ashton popped up behind him, “What’s up with the fire?” Duke jumped hearing the voice and ricocheted of the ground seeing the apparition. “Fire guy!” Ashton approached him, he backed up. “What’s up with the fire?” he repeated.
“That’s not you?”
“No but it seems familiar.”
“I, I, I, guess you have to go inside to find out…”
Ashton laughed “You’re funny, I will be going inside.” His face became determined, and his fiery passion was not absent like his fire
“Good.” Duke watched him enter the inferno and then sprinted full force in the direction of the Loving Hands Friendship House.