The Stolen Chapters (9 page)

“That'd be great!” Gwen said, giving her a grin as she pulled her hoodie over her head. “By the way, I hope you think this costume of our people is respectful toward them?”

“Very,” Bethany said, and laughed. “I love it!” She waved good-bye, then clicked a nonexistent communicator on her wrist. “Bethany, ready to beam back to the future!” she said to no one, then jumped back out of the book, figuring her “time travel” would account for her just disappearing.

As soon as she hit her bed, she got on her computer and searched the online catalog at the library. The first few books she found, she dismissed. It couldn't be anything too obvious, or too big. Nothing that was still going. Had to be a series that was over, and one that as few people as possible had read.

There. Perfect. She clicked the reserve button, just to make sure it was there tomorrow.

Detective books. Why hadn't she thought of this before? When someone went missing, of
course
you went to a detective.

And thanks to the library, she had just reserved one of the greatest detectives of all time.

01:28:49

K
iel rubbed his aching head as he pushed himself off the alleyway's wall, where he'd been leaning after the last memory hit. That one had come out of nowhere (and wasn't the most useful for the current situation) but at least his memories were returning, if slowly.

Still, sometimes magic really
did
create headaches.

But there was no time to waste feeling sorry for himself. Bethany had a little less than ninety minutes before he'd never see her again, and Kiel was no closer now than he'd been twenty minutes ago.

Why couldn't he have his magic? This would be done in seconds! Or even Charm? She always knew what to do in these situations. Sure, Kiel liked to give her a hard time, but only because she enjoyed it so much. And without Charm, he'd never have found so much as the First Key to the Source of Magic, let alone any of the others.

But Charm was far away in Quanterium, and he was stuck in the nonfictional world. Here, he needed an expert on the boring and normal. Here, he needed
Owen
.

With a groan, Kiel started back out toward the police station, each extra minute weighing heavily on his mind. What if he ran out of time and was too late to rescue Bethany? Sure, he couldn't remember the past month or so of their time together, but what Kiel could remember made him smile. And not the smile he flashed for other people, the one designed to put them at ease, to make them think Kiel had a plan and knew what he was doing. Not even the smile he gave Charm to make her secretly enjoy herself in spite of everything.

No, this smile was just for
himself
, and that . . . that was something Kiel had never really felt before.

Bethany was just so unlike anyone he'd ever known. All her rules, all her worries made him want to grab her hand and jump off a cliff with her, just to see her excitement break through. The times when she had just let go and gone fictional, she'd seemed so happy, and the memory gave Kiel a warm feeling throughout his chest.

The sight of the police station, though, killed that feeling. He paused a block away, watching the police cars skidding to a stop outside of it and the steady flow of criminals in and police officers out. Busy night, apparently.

Kiel wiped his hands on his pants, not sure why his palms were so sweaty. He'd done this before, been in police stations dozens of times. The Science Police had picked him up constantly when he was just a thief on the streets.

So why was he so nervous? Kiel Gnomenfoot didn't do nervous . . . at least not so anyone could tell. What would his fans all think if they knew that he was terrified half the time? They'd be let down, and that was something Kiel wasn't ever going to let happen.

He wiped his hands again, pasted a smug grin on his face, and stepped confidently toward the police station. He'd find Owen, they'd escape, and together they'd find Bethany in minutes. Owen would know what to do. This was his world, and he knew this Doyle guy.

It'd all be okay. It'd definitely all be okay.

So why wasn't he moving?

Kiel looked down at his traitorous lower limbs.
Hmm.
Apparently his feet were making this more difficult than it needed to be. He gave them an annoyed look and forced his leg to step forward.

It refused, staying put exactly where he'd had it.

What was happening? Kiel Gnomenfoot, boy magician and savior of all Magisteria, was scared of being caught by the police? Just because he had no magic and no idea what he was doing in this world? Just because for the first time in his life, he honestly wasn't sure he'd be able to get back out once he stepped inside the police station?

Maybe his feet knew more than he did.

Kiel backed away into the shadows, realizing his heart was racing. This was ridiculous! He was Kiel Gnomenfoot! He'd faced down dragons, fought crazy clones of himself, and even gone past the edge of existence. Just because he was completely powerless now, that didn't mean that he couldn't handle himself.

And yet, somehow his palms were sweaty again.

“You made it!” said a voice to his side, and Kiel quickly turned to find a girl about his age with light-brown skin, her long black hair held down with a tight black hat, which matched the rest of her dark clothes. She was also grinning hugely.

Kiel instantly flashed a smile at her in return, letting himself fall back into old habits. It felt good, actually. “I did,” he said, unsure what she was talking about.

Before he could ask, the girl threw her arms around him and hugged him quickly. “I thought you'd
never
show up,” the girl continued, pushing him away. “This is so exciting, isn't it?”

Ah, a fan. “You must think I look like the dashing hero of the Kiel Gnomenfoot series,” he said, using his smug grin.

The girl laughed. “
Nothing
you say makes sense.
Love it.
Never change! Where've you been? I've been waiting forever for you!”

“I get that a lot,” Kiel told the girl, then winked.

The girl laughed, then winked back immediately.

Kiel paused, not entirely sure what to do with that. He winked again, and she did too.

“What's happening here?” he said.

“Like
I
know?” the girl said, grinning widely as she shook her head. “I followed that other guy here, like, a half hour ago, but I thought you got lost or something. But you're here now, so we can get moving, my handsome little koala! Time to set this plan into motion, am I right?” She winked again.

This was
not
how these things usually went. “Can we step back a bit?” Kiel asked. “I'm honestly not one hundred percent sure who you are.”

The girl nodded. “You're so right. Who are
any
of us? Let's seriously get moving, though.” With that, she shoved Kiel forward, out into the road leading to the police station.

Kiel immediately jumped back into the shadows. “Wait a second.
I don't know who you are
.”

The girl gave him an odd look. “You don't?” She looked down at herself. “I mean, I'm in my work clothes, but I don't look that different. Are you just messing with me?” She slowly grinned at him. “You're
totally
messing with me.
I love this.
You guys are so fun!”

Kiel just looked at her helplessly for a moment, then put up his hands in apology. “No, I mean . . . I've had some problems with my memory. It's a whole thing. Magic and all.”

“Oh,
totally
,” the girl said, and winked. “Magic. Of course.”

“Stop that!” Kiel shouted, then put his hands back up as the girl's smile faded into a more dangerous look. “Look, sorry, it's just hard to concentrate when you keep doing that.”

The girl gave him a careful look, then shrugged, the smile exploding back over her face. “No need to apologize. Let's just get going!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him back toward the police station.

This was clearly another missing memory, so all he had to do was trigger it. Kiel pulled the girl to a stop, then when she turned around, stared her right in the face for a good ten seconds. Then he closed his eyes, focusing on her face, willing the memory to come. Anticipating the pain, he gritted his teeth and waited for the memory to smack him across the face.

Instead of the memory, though, he got an actual slap.

“Wake up!” the girl said. “I think I lost you there. Did you faint? You fainted, didn't you. You stared at me for a second, then looked like you had to go to the bathroom. Kind of like a koala, weirdly. Is this normal for you?”

Kiel put a hand up to his cheek, which throbbed where she'd slapped him. “Not even a little bit.”

“Then follow the plan, my magical koala.” She laughed, then grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the police station again.

“Um, we're going to get caught if we get any closer,” Kiel told her.

“Uh,
yeah
?” she said. “That's the idea!” Then she turned toward the station and raised her voice. “Hey, cops! Aren't you looking for this guy? I found him. Kiel Gnomenfoot. Come and get him!”

And with that, every police officer around the station glanced up. Kiel's eyes widened and he turned to run, only to feel a jolt like lightning hit his side, and he dropped to the ground, twitching.

The girl in black stood over him, a small sparking device in her hand shooting little blue bolts. “Wow, that was
fun
,” she said. “Hope it didn't hurt much. Did it? A lot? Sorry. But still,
how much do I love my Taser
? Anyway, enjoy!”

And with that, she ran off, laughing as Kiel twitched on the ground, police officers surrounding him on all sides.

01:18:12

O
wen sat in a different room in the police station, this one a bit more comfortable than the interrogation room, but with the door no less locked. It didn't escape him that there wasn't even a window. Apparently, the police were taking no chances.

After the last memory attack, Inspector Brown had given him some aspirin and said that his mother was on her way now, which almost made Owen's head ache even more. Beyond having to explain exactly what he'd been doing in the library (um,
not lighting it on fire! 
), there was the fact that she'd told the police he was still in bed. What did that mean? Was she trying to cover for him, somehow? He snorted.
His
mom? But what else could it be?

All of this would be so much easier if he could just remember what had happened before he'd woken up in the library!

Owen growled in frustration and smacked his head over and over, hoping to jar out some more memories. All of this was beginning to feel like one of those terrible stories, where half of it took place in the present, and the rest was told in flashbacks. So irritating. You knew the characters would be okay during the flashbacks because you were seeing them in the present too, so the flashbacks were always boring. Why couldn't those writers just tell the story the
normal
way?

Again, a tiny part of Owen's brain began trying to tell him something, but he couldn't quite get ahold of it, like it was a slippery water balloon covered in oil. Whatever it was could wait, though. Right now, he needed to remember.

Maybe the flashback thing could help? Sure, it was more of a fictional thing. You didn't flash back in the real world, you just remembered things. But it's not like anything was happening like it was supposed to tonight. There was no record of Bethany anywhere, a second Owen was home asleep, and his library had just been burned down by a fictional character.

At this point thinking a little fictionally might help. Besides, what else did he have to do here in the police station? Wait to either be thrown in jail by the cops or grounded until he was a million by his mom?

Owen took a deep breath and focused on flashing backward, trying to mentally push himself into the past. He brought up the first memory that'd hit him, the day when Kiel had gone back into his series to recover his spell book. That'd been a quick memory, just Kiel and Bethany as Charm (sigh . . .) jumping out of the book. But the next flashback had been much longer, when Kiel had used the finder spell to find Bethany's dad.

But what had happened next? Bethany had told them she didn't want to go into any more books, and . . . and
what
?

“Flash . . .
back
,” he whispered, rubbing his temples. “Flashback! Flassssssh baaaaaack.” Ugh. Nothing. He swung his head in circles, trying to drag the memories to the surface, but that didn't help either. Finally, out of options, he scrunched his eyes closed, took a deep breath, then banged his head on the table.

“AH!” he shouted, grabbing his poor skull, still entirely memoryless. Clearly, forcing a flashback was just not going to happen.

Not without, maybe, something
bigger
, at least. Owen glanced around the room for something to hit himself over the head with, but other than the table (which he'd just tried), there wasn't anything too promising.

Ugh. This was so frustrating! He glanced at his watch, and realized that in another eighty-five minutes or so, Bethany really
would
disappear. Maybe that's what had happened? Had Doyle somehow removed all record of her from the police database? And maybe he'd been the one to put a fake Owen in Owen's real bed!

But why would he have done those things? Why would he have done
any
of these things? Owen sighed, dropping his head into his hands.

At least Kiel was out there, looking for Bethany. Kiel the hero would actually get the job done, unlike Owen, sitting here uselessly in a police station, powerless, planless, hopeless. Kiel had been right. He should have trusted the magician, and not turned himself in to the police. That's what a nonfictional sidekick did, not a fictional awesome person.