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Feb-15-2009 01:09

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

I glanced up at the large clock again. Each tick and each tock drove my mind farther back into the past. A past I had left behind ten long years before. A past I was facing now.

But first came the waiting. I hate waiting.

I glanced around the station again. Deserted. Not a soul in sight. Strange, considering that this used to be a bustling train station ten years ago. I pulled the letter out of my shoulder bag to look at it again.

"Anais, Be at Winchester Station, Platform 7 at 23.00, 2/15. ~Lisette"

Lisette. Could I really face her after all this time? Well, I was about to find out. With a shaking hand, I shoved the letter deep into my bag. Where was she? It was 23.17. Lisette had never been late in the twenty plus years I had known her. What was going on?

Feb-19-2009 11:08

''Well Ace,I got to hand it to you,you sure know how to escape.'' I said,when we were back on the city streets. ''Ehmm,Ace'' I said. ''Yes Vulkie?'' he said. I didn't continue,but kissed him on the mouth,passionately. ''See this as a thanks gift Ace'' I said. Ace blushed and we continued to walk. Ace knew a good place to hide,starting at a shiny new bar. Ace said that this was a bar owned by the crazy smuggler and Ace inherited it.

''Open that statuette Anais.'' Joseph said. Anais opened it carefully and it contained a note,saying: ''To obtain what you seek,you must follow these steps. First,go to the Lion's Den and find the secret compartment. Second,when you have obtained the next clue,follow it.'' Lisette already made a cosy fire and I grabbed the paper and threw it in the fire,making sure it was destroyed. Something still bothered me. ''Ace,why did you kill Fredo?'' I asked. Ace again blushed and said he wanted to protect me from Fredo. Was I falling in love,or does this guy seemed like the ultimate catch for a girl like me?. When we grabbed a beer or an other refreshment,we heard some noises. ''They're here somewhere,I'm absolutely sure.'' I knew that voice. It was Fredo. I stared towards Ace,who also was astonished.

I barricaded the door and Ace escorted Lisette,Anais and Joseph through the back door to a car,standing ready for departure. Everybody was inside the car. I was driving,Ace was sitting next to me with his hand on my lap and Joseph,Anais and Lisette were sitting tight on the backseat. I started the car,but it wouldn't start. At the fourth turn,it started,just as Fredo came stumbling out of the door and shot Ace in the arm. I drove away,and Fredo shot his gun empty. ''I will get you,no matter what,I will beat death eventually'' Fredo yelled.

Ace bleeded badly and everyone was taking care of him. I took my shirt off(Luckily I had another shirt on) and Joseph used that to ''bandage'' Ace.

Where we headed,I didn't know,but Ace knew....

Feb-19-2009 17:51

Through all of this, one question had been running through my mind. I hadn't had the courage to ask Lisette when I first saw her, and no time had ever seemed like the right time to ask. And, even without that excuse, I was scared of what the answer might be. Even as Ace was shot, I couldn't seem to focus on him. My present seemed distant, while my past seemed alive. 'There will never be a right time, will there?' I asked myself silently. 'Nope' came my answer. I took a deep breath and turned to Lisette. "Lisette? Where is Poppa? Why isn't he helping with this?"

Lisette froze. Her back stiffened, her head snapped forward, so she was no longer looking at me, and her hands clenched. "Father is dead," her voice chilled me to the bone, it was so devoid of emotion.

"Can the pair of you discuss this later? We are trying to stay alive right now," Joseph was bandaging Ace's arm and was not in the best mood.

"Lion's Den..." Ace muttered. "Lion's Den... I've never heard of it."

"It's another code. It has to be," Lisette's voice was still cold.

"Wait, I'm trying to recall...I've heard it mentioned before, but..." I thought hard. "Poppa used to say something about it when I was really little. He would kiss Mummy, and say, 'I'm off to the Den!' and she would reply, 'Not the Lion's, again, dear? Please, don't!' The Lion's Den. He stopped going when Mummy died. I was eight. Lisette was three..." I trailed off, lost in memories of my youth.

"Anais! The Lion's Den? Where is it?!" Vulkie screamed at me.

I jumped. "Oh, it's not actually called 'The Lion's Den'. It is a part of the country club just out of the city. The club, at least, it used to be there...I wonder..." I trailed off again.

"Anais!" Ace sounded exasperated and in a great deal of pain.

"Sorry! Windham Country Club. The lounge there was called The Cougar Lounge," just then, we hit another big bump, and I hit my head hard on the ceiling. Out I passed again.

Feb-19-2009 23:03

(((Vulkie was complaining to me about having to drag me around when I'm in a faint or have been knocked or or such... so, I just wanted to let ya'll know I'm not that heavy, only bout 120lbs, so you shouldn't have to strain your backs dragging me around. ;D teehee. now, that's the end of my little spiel here...)))

Feb-20-2009 05:04

Lisette was stone silent after mentioning her father, as usual. For some reason she never like to talk about him. Vulkie knew the area well, but it still took us close to two hours to find the secluded site. Anais slowly woke from her latest coma, and recognized the ancient building although she rarely visited the place. The Windham Country Club had a very British air to it. It was way past midnight, and I decided to pick the lock. There's no need to wake the staff, or the guests, or anything in between.

The front door creaked open after two trials.
"Where do we go?" Ace asked quietly.
"I... can't remember... left, maybe?" Anais replied.
We prodded along, going from room to room. Finally, my flashlight fell upon a piece of wide animal hide with a fake cougar head laid in the middle of the room.

"This must be the 'Lion's Den'!" Vulkie whispered excitedly. "So, where is the secret compartment?" The five of us spread out and searched in the dark, after an hour, we still found nothing. I looked around the room again with my flashlight. The Lion's Den. The Lion Den. My flashlight fell back on the animal hide with the strange patterns on it.

"Of course!" Lisette said, walked toward the centre piece and flipped the animal up. There was nothing under the rug. Ace and Vulkie tested every piece of floorboard, but nothing came loose.

"Maybe we're in the wrong room." Vulkie was exasperated.
Anais pondered quietly, then it dawned on her. "Maybe it's not UNDER the Lion!" I took up the animal hide and examined the head. There, underneath the jaw, was a tiny slit. Lisette inserted her long nail into the slit and pushed. The little secret compartment popped opened and small piece of paper fell out.

Feb-20-2009 05:05

Vulkie picked up the piece of paper, unrolled it and read: E46.458
"What is this?" Lisette asked, puzzled. Vulkie flipped over the piece of paper, a strange pattern of lines crisscrossed over it. We all looked at this for a while, nothing came to us. I was tired and looked away, and spotted the strange patterns on the animal hide.

“That looks familiar.” I pointed at the rug. We flattened the animal hide again, and tried to match the pattern on the piece of paper with the ones on the rug. Finally, we located the exact same pattern in the lower centre area, a few inches below a big rectangular shape.
“Now what?” Ace asked.

Anais was quiet for a short while, and then she said, “Doesn’t this look like… Manhattan Island?” We all looked at the piece of oval animal hide in new light. Anais ran her finger across a diagonal line, “There, Broadway Avenue.” She was right. Slowly, I recognized the big rectangular shape in the middle as the Central Park, there’s Lexington Avenue, and even a spot off the lower left corner representing the Statue of Liberty.
“So, what does the piece of paper supposed to represent?” Lisette questioned.

Ace examined it for a while and exclaimed softly, “It’s the New York Public Library! It’s on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets.”
“But what are we supposed to find there?” Lisette asked.
“A book, of course!” Anais replied.
“Which book? There are more than one million books in there.” The younger sister sighed.
Anais smiled, “We already have the catalog number: E46.458”

Dawn was breaking and the house began to stir. We quickly left the country club and returned to our car.

Feb-20-2009 08:14

We sped over to the Library. Ace had finally stopped bleeding, so he went in with them.

"Wait." Ace started before they got out of the car, "This shirt's really bloody. All in favor of not scaring everyone by making Vulkie give me her other shirt, say aye."
Jokingly, Ace and Joseph said aye.
"Dangit. Oh well, I'll use mine."

Ace was also wearing two shirts, the top one blood spattered, but better than nothing.

They went in and quickly found book E46.458: 101 Yoga Poses. Ace chuckled at that. Anais grabbed it, and immediately began decoding it. Well... it seemed more like she was reading it.

"Anais!" Lisette whispered, "We don't have time for you to improve your yoga skills!"
"Sorry!" She apologized, and then began flipping through the pages.

"Wow!" She finally exclaimed, "Looks like not many people want to discover the joys of yoga!" She carefully pulled out four, delicate, pressed leaves.

As she searched through the rest of the book, Vulkie examined the leaves. The last one she picked up, a maple leaf, was apparently not a leaf at all.

It was a tiny booklet full of weird codes. "Anais, I think this is your territory." She said, handing the booklet to Anais.
"Oh, great. This will take me forever!"
"Let's go get a hotel with a radio." Joseph suggested, "You can think, and we all can get some shuteye."

Feb-20-2009 18:53

I was tired, but I couldn't sleep. Bambi was a good friend, I regret to have dragged her into all this and got her killed. It was a mess when it happened and no one saw the shooter's face, but whoever tommy gunned Bambi's cabaret, I swore that I will find out and hunt the bastard down.

Ace was sleeping in the next bed, I decided to go out and get some air. When I past the small secluded library within the hotel, Anais was there, buried in all her codes and numbers, talking to herself. The other two girls must be fast asleep in their room. I admire Anais for her intelligence and calmness, and we must do something for all her fainting after this. It's true that Lisette is the younger and prettier one, well, at least the one with more make up and flashier dresses. When I looked closely, Anais did have a pretty face.

Just as I was staring at her from the doorway, Anais noticed my presence.
"Hey." She smiled, and went right back to her decoding.
"Hey," I replied, my face must be bright red. "Urh, sorry to intrude, i'll... i'll go back to my room now." I turn around and was about to leave.
"No, I need a break from all the numbers and dots anyway," Anais said, "and I never had the chance to thank you for everything."
"Urh, you're welcome. Your sister asked me to pick you up, that's all..." I said, then added, stuttering, "Not that I won't do it on my own-- but then I wouldn't know you if it wasn't for Lisette-- But if I do know you without knowing Lisette-- I would still help you out-- with or without your sister..." Where was I going with this? It's a disaster.

Anais giggled. It's good to see her laugh after all the turmoil. Just then, someone cleared her throat right behind me. "You two are getting cozy!"
"Oh, Lisette, I thought you were sleeping." I turned to her.
"Oh, I thought so were you!" Lisette said. "I'm hungry. Accompany me to the dining lounge." She put her arms around me and dragged me away. I didn't even have time to say goodbye to Anais.

Feb-20-2009 19:16

Coincidentally, Ace and Vulkie exited their rooms at the same time. They greeted each other, then went down to check on Anais.

"Hey, how's it going in here!" Vulkie nearly shouted. Anais jumped, flipping her books off the table.
"Vulkie!" She started, "You scared me half to death!"

She began chuckling. "Lemme show you guys what I got so far."

She showed Ace and Vulkie her decoding. Despite all her efforts, she hadn't gotten very far.

"Anais, how about we take over and you go and take a nap?" Ace asked, "We may not figure out as much, but then you'll at least be a bit refreshed."
"That's a pretty good idea, Ace." Anais yawned conveniently, "I could really use a few Z's."

Vulkie gave Anais the key to the "girl's room" and Ace and Vulkie sat down. Neither had been that good with codes, but between them, maybe they'd find something.

Feb-21-2009 05:29

''When you position yourself in the Crawling Tiger-position and you are in front of the book,you will see another hint of where you may find the mystery. With this hint,you are one step closer towards the powers that the statuette contains. When you...'' There it ended,this was how far Anais got with decoding. When I told Joseph and Lisette about this,we woke Anais up. She was still a bit sleepy and annoyed. ''Why did you wake me up,I had just the perfect dream.'' Anais said.

We went back towards the library,placed the book on a table and Anais took the position. At first,she didn't see anything,but later on,she discovered something. ''Follow the way of your heart and find your dearest possession.'',it said.

Anais thought very hard. ''The most dearest possession,hmmm.'' That must be Poppa's ring.'' Anais said. ''Unfortunately....'' Oh great,I thought,there's always something. ''Unfortunately,the ring was lost when we fled Bambi's place. We heard a big explosion and Fredo came walking in. ''Looking for this little ring,dear?'',Fredo said. ''Give it here Fredo or else...'' Ace said.

''Or else what,Ace? Are you going to kill me again? You know I can beat death,eventually. I did it once and the second time,I will be victorious again.'' Fredo said.

Fredo took his tommygun out...

Feb-21-2009 05:37

''DUCK!'' Joseph screamed and jumped aside and threw a table over,taking cover. I jumped near Joseph,also taking cover. Anais and Lisette and Ace took cover behind a bookcase. The room was ''decorated'' with holes. Luckily,I had my gun and Joseph also. Ace still had a tommygun,in case something happened.

We fired at Fredo,and he fell down. We didn't know if he was dead,but we took the advantage,took the ring from him and ran away. I started the car,Ace took care of Lisette and Anais and Joseph took the passenger seat.
We drove away,going 100 miles per hour. We were chased by three LCN Buicks through the city. We went for the Chasing Bridge,hopefully,it was still open. It was open,and I drove over it,making roaring sounds with the engine. The LCN people fired at us. I searched the glove compartment,gave Ace a gun,and gave Joseph a new magazine for his pistol. ''Under my seat lies a tommygun. Use it wisely'' I said,while screeching tires went for a corner,turning left.

Anais took the tommy,opened her side window and fired. She shot the driver of the first car,which crashed in the second car,while the second car was passing by. The third car contained Fredo,pretty angered,with three other LCN people,including a Capo of LCN,Shady Boom.

We went for the DAB church,hopefully,the LCN people got scared and DAB took care of them. I crashed the car in a lantern pole,and everybody was shocked and got out of the car. I let the gas tank open,letting all the fuel out of it. When the car parked at the DAB parking place,the fuel leaked towards them. Ace fired a round at it and the fuel caught fire. The next thing we saw,was that the LCN car was exploding.. Then,I fainted...