Panic raced up and down Nyssia’s body as she hurried through the vent. She momentarily peered back behind her and for a brief second she thought she heard the others behind her. But no one came. She was alone. She started to breathe heavy. Tears were forming in her eyes. She didn’t know what to do now. She sat there in the vents for a few minutes before she pulled out the little nun puppet she carried with her. She stared at the big button eyes.

“Sister...Help me.” Nyssia said. Her words were shaky and full of fear and uncertainty. Her hands trembled. She made the little puppet dance and responded in a squeaky voice.

“Nyssia, child” She started with her high pitched voice. “Your friends are in trouble, child. They need you.” Nyssia sniffed.

“But I’m scared. I’m alone and I don’t know where they are or what to do. I want to go home. I don’t want to be a wizard anymore.” Nyssia said hastily. Her hands trembled with fear.

“Quiet child!” The puppet said. “You need to get a hold of yourself. First find your friends. Then continue on your quest. Just believe in yourself, child.”

“But-”

“No buts!” The puppet interrupted. Nyssia motioned the puppet’s arm to be pointing at her. “You’re going to be fine. You’re going to succeed. Have faith in yourself, child. You never know until you try.”

Nyssia sniffed and wiped her tears. She sat alone in silence for a moment. Uncertainty filled her head. She thought about going back. Going back to her bed and hiding. But the thought of leaving her new friends behind momentarily weighed down her shoulders with guilt. She couldn’t leave them behind. She looked at the puppet and gave the puppet a hug.

“Thank you.” She whispered. She took another deep breath and put the puppet back into her front pocket. Then she took a brief look at her surroundings and continued forward.

She maneuvered her way through the vents from memory, heading back down into the basement where the group would have been heading. Lights from the rooms lit the way as Nyssia made her way down into the basement.

The rooms and hallways did not have as many people running around compared to regular business hours but the people that she did see did not appear to be the friendly type.

After a few more minutes Nyssia saw sparks. Bright blue light shined into the vents from one of the rooms below. She shuffled her way over and observed.

It was several men in maintenance uniforms. They were standing in front of a large generator. One of them were staring at dials and gages.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“I told you” One of the men started. “These figures are off the charts. The whole thing can blow at this rate.”

The man near the gages turn to face the other man.

“I’ve tried to reroute the energy to other sources throughout the building. It should buy us some time. I hope that quack knows what he is doing.”

The last little man started to wave his arms. “Are you both crazy!? If this thing goes then we all would die. I don’t care how much gold they give me. Seriously, not only us but everyone in a five block radius. There is so much energy funneling into this thing it would be the equivalent of a small nuclear device. I’m not sure how this is even possible. It should have reached its max capacity awhile back and just shut down automatically. The fail safe should have gone off. Please! We got to shut this down now.”

The first man walked up to the little man and slapped him across his face. “Enough. We leave now. If you want to take this up with Mr. Rick and Dr Bronson then be my guest. I’m leaving.” With that one by one the men left the room. The generator wirled some more and blue sparks streaked across the air and landed on the cold floor. Nyssia didn’t fully understand what was said. But she got the hint that this was no good. But her friends were not here. She looked away and pressed on.

Down pass a few more room Nyssia heard the sounds of struggle and groans as if someone got hit really hard in the stomach. She peered through the grate and saw Io on the ground. She was in a security room with many small televisions with just as many VCRs. Her arms were tied behind her back and there looked like fresh bruises on her face. One of the guards hoisted her up on her knees. Io spat on the ground.

“Eat me, dickhead. I won’t be talking.” Io said as she looked up at Mr Rick.

“My dear brute of a woman. I don’t need you to talk to anyone.” Mr Rick said as he held up a small walkie talkie. “I am now speaking to the commander of the Nation Guard that is stationed outside the facility. Be aware we have hostages and are prepared to execute them, should any action against us is taken.” Mr. Rick said into the walkie. He then stretched his hand with the walkie out towards Io and gave the guard a slight nod. The guard grabbed Io’s hair, pulled her hair back and punched her in the stomach. Io let out a loud groan. Mr. Rick raised the walkie to his face.

“Do we have an agreement?”

“Roger. We read you. No action will be taken.” A voice said through the radio. An uncomfortably delightful smile cracked across Mr. Rick’s face.

“Perfect.” Mr Rick said in a cold voice. He turned the walkie off and placed it on the table. He looked up and faced the guards.

“Take her back to the pantry with the others. No communication between us and the National Guard is needed. Lock the door on your way out.” Mr. Rick said as he turned and slowly walked out of the room.

Nyssia’s eyes widen with delight. The pantry. Food. Food and friends. A perfect combo in her eyes. She watched the last few guards leave the room and heard the lock. Nyssia was about to turn and make her way to the pantry when the sight of the walkie caught her eye. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her screwdriver. With a few twists and turns she carefully opened the grate into the security room.

The vent was positioned over several boxes making slipping down into the room easy for Nyssia. She quietly moved slowly down from the boxes and over to the table.

“Not A CD player but I can get something out of this.” Nyssia said with a gleeful smile.

As Nyssia turned around to head back to the vent she accidentally tripped over a cable on the floor. Light from the monitors suddenly went black as the monitors shut off.

“Oopsie.” Nyssia said as she quickly looked towards the door, fearing someone heard her. Nothing. She let out a sigh of relief. She looked up at the monitors and then scrambled to replug in the cable. The monitors flickered back on. Nyssia slowly got up and was about to head back when she spotted the VCR for the monitors. The red recording light was off. She tilted her head in confusion and then hit the rewind button.

A monitor flickered and suddenly appeared to be rewinding. Nyssia looked up at the monitor and a smile streaked across her face. She quickly hit the play button and the monitor flickered once more and settled. What was playing on the monitor was the footage recorded several hours ago. She snickered a little bit from her mischievous actions and mumbled to herself.

“I’m a wizard. I cast invisibility.” She said as she snickered as she pressed the rewind buttons for the other VCR players. The remaining monitors flickered with lightning speed and started to play footage that was recorded several hours prior. Nyssia continued to wear the mischievous smile as she climbed up the boxes and back into the vents.