Pushing Up Daisies - Part Two (OLD VERSION)

Done, finally. Kind of silly at parts, kind of serious too, but I'm finally done. This part is kind of fast paced, yes, but it's important. You learn a lot about Thalia's past and family. Also, Soot and Mar are introduced! :D Yay! One last thing: I have changed Thalia's hair color to honey brown with a black streak, instead of black with a blond streak. I didn't want to re-do her whole bio just for this, but yeah. I honestly don't care, though, whether people write her with her new hair color rather than her old hair color. I'll use the new one, but if people choose to use the old one, so be it. And in the third flashback, Thalia has already taken her taken name.  The first two are before then. OK, enough of my rambles, read and enjoy!
______________________________________________________________________

Thalia sighed.  She was bored.  Over the past two days that she had been in this place (Thalia could tell that it had been two days because of her watch), she hadn’t had any other human interaction

She sighed again, closing her eyes.  It wasn’t even a real cell that Thalia was trapped it.  The fluorescent lighting and obnoxiously bright white ceiling, walls, and floor might have just given it away.  And yet here she was, chained to a chair with chains that obviously had binding spells on them.  She was powerless.

A soft click caused Thalia’s eyes to fly open.  The door handle was turning slowly.  As the door began to open, the mind reader couldn’t help feel like she was in one of those cheesy yet terrifying horror movies.  Whoever was behind the door apparently got  tired of creeping out their hostage, because it was suddenly flung open, revealing a young man in his late teens.

‘Do I know him?’ Thalia thought curiously, searching through her memories.  He certainly did look familiar, with his flaxen hair and gray eyes.

“Surprise!” the man cried out suddenly, surveying Thalia with a boyish grin.  He had an Irish accent.  “It was me all along!  You didn’t guess that, did you, dear?  I know you’re clever, but of all the people it could be, you would never have suspected me.  I’m good, aren’t I?”

“What?”  Thalia looked completely bewildered.  “What!?”

He titled his head, shutting the door behind him.  “You don’t remember me?  Well, it has been a long time since we saw each other, so I guess it’s not that surprising.  Why, we’ve both even lost our Russian accents!”

“WHAT!?”  Thalia was seriously freaked out now.  Hardly anyone knew that she had live in Russia when she was little.  Now this stranger was saying that he had known her back then.  But as much as Thalia tried to convince herself that she didn’t know this person, something was gnawing at the back of her mind.  A long buried memory.

“Come on, remember.  Try really, really hard.”

And it all came hurtling back.

***

Two year old Calliope chased her older brother around the backyard.  The snow was deep, reaching up to the young girl’s waist.  So while the eight year old boy was able to run awkwardly, Calliope was struggling to stay upright as she stumbled and pushed her way through the thick snow.

“Give it back!” she cried, reaching her arms out before her in a pleading way.

Finn laughed and held the stuffed cat doll high above his head.  “Come and get it!” he called teasingly.

Calliope sucked in a deep breath.  The boy’s eyes widened, and he seemed to realize that his sister was about to call for their mother.  Which would be very, very bad for him.  Finn held out the cat doll to her.  “Here, here it is.  I was only joking.  Shush, no need to-”

Before Finn had finished, the cat doll was snatched from his hands.  The next thing he knew, he was sprawled on his back in the snow, and Calliope was hurrying off to the house, laughing.

Two years later.

                                                                                                                                 

“Where’s Finn?”

Calliope gazed up at her mother with wide, questioning gray eyes.  The woman sighed, and crouched down, putting her arms around her daughter.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but Finn’s gone now.  There’s nothing we can do.”

“The Necromancers took him,” Calliope said.  “Why?”

Her mother sighed again.  She couldn’t keep anything from this mind reading child.  “Someday you’ll be able to understand it better, I promise,” she said, stroking the young girl’s honey brown hair.  “But remember what your father and I have always told you: your family is your greatest ally.”

“That’s lesson number one.  Lesson number two is that your family can also be your greatest enemy.”

Calliope’s mother laughed.  “Correct, dear.”

Seven years later.

Thalia Jane Circe stumbled through the burning house.  She clutched at her sword like a lifeline, swinging it wildly at any vampires that came near her, decapitating them, slicing them open.  Her left arm was broken, her forehead bleeding profusely, but she had to get out.

Her family was dead.  Thalia couldn’t believe it.  Her mother, father, and Fay – all of them.

Thalia burst out the front door, coughing and gagging.  The smoke was clogging her lungs.  Her vision was blurred by blood and tears, but Thalia could still make out Dusk standing at the end of her driveway.  There was someone else too, but all Thalia could make out was short blond hair shining in the moonlight.

The two disappeared way before she had gotten even halfway to them.

***

“Oh my God,” Thalia whispered, staring at her brother in horror.  “Oh my freaking God.  Finn.  Holy crap.”

Finn laughed.  “I thought you’d never figure it out!”

Thalia gritted her teeth and glared at him.  “So.  Sixty-two years after you had Dusk and a bunch of other vampires kill the rest of our family, you decide to kill me too.  How charming.”

“Oh no, dearest little sister, I’m not going to kill you,” Finn said in a hurt voice, his eyes going wide.

“Okay, then, you want to rub it in my face.  ‘Haha, I killed our family, sucks for you.’  Am I right?”

“Nooooope!”

She sighed.  “What, then?”

Her brother grinned.  “Do you wonder why I killed our family?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Thalia said sarcastically, rolling her eyes in an exaggerated manner.  “You’re psychotic, I’m guessing.  Or maybe you just like killing people.”

“Wrong again, sister dearest,” Finn said with a sigh.  “When the Necromancers of our family took me away – to Ireland, in case you’re wondering – our parents didn't exactly fight to get me back.”

“Because mum was pregnant with Fay, and I was only four at the time.”

“Whatever.  I mean, I’m glad now that I was taken away, but I certainly expected more of our parents.  So, I killed them!  Ta-da!” Finn stared at his sister expectantly, waiting to be congratulated.

Thalia looked revolted.  “Uh, yeah.  Finn, you’re definitely psychotic.”

“Stop calling me Finn,” Not-Finn said, pouting.  “It’s not my name anymore.”

“Then what it?”

Not-Finn grinned.  “My name is Bob!”

Thalia burst out laughing.

Bob-Finn frowned.  “Doesn’t that name strike fear into your heart?”

“Pfft, no!  That’s ridiculous!” Thalia managed to choke out.  “Reminds me of Angel Bob from Doctor Who!”

Bob-Finn walked closer to her, his eyes narrowing.  “Well, sorry to disappoint.  But playtime’s over now, sweetie.  I’m not going to kill you yet, but that doesn’t mean I won’t hurt you.”

“Yes, but, here is an example of why I’m glad not to be a guy,” Thalia replied.  She gave him a sweet smile and kicked him between the legs.

Her brother doubled over in pain.  The chains binding Thalia to the chair were a bit loose, so, with a bit of wriggling, she managed to slip out of them.  She felt her powers rushing back to her.  Thalia sprinted over to the door and tried to yank it open.  It was locked.

“Oh, you really thought I’d leave the door unlocked?”

Thalia spun slowly around.  Bob-Finn was pointing a gun at her head.

“This whole thing is bigger than you think it is, little sister.  There’s more to it than just me and you.  And now you’re getting in the way, so you need to be eliminated.  No hard feelings, okay?” he said in a pleasant tone.  Thalia did the only thing she could do, because she was not getting shot – she ran forward and flung herself at him.

Thalia didn’t weigh much at all, but she had caught Bob-Finn off guard.  He stumbled backwards, tripped over the chair, and they went crashing to the floor.  The gun flew from his hand and slide across the floor.  Thalia and Bob-Finn glared at each other for a moment, then both tried to grab the gun at once.  A wrestling match ensued.  Bob-Finn grabbed a handful of Thalia’s hair and yanked her head back.  She responded by punching him in the nose.  They rolled across the floor, exchanging blows and yelling curses at each other.  Eventually, Thalia felt something cold and metal brush her hand.  She grabbed the gun by the barrel and wacked Bob-Finn over the head with it.  He fell unconscious.

“Sorry, dude,” Thalia panted, “But you never were a good older brother.”

She reached into his coat pocket, searching for the key to the door, and pulled out a whole ring of them.  Thalia glared at all the keys.  There wasn’t time to try them all.  So she aimed the gun at the lock on the door and fired.  The lock broke.

Thalia got up and walked to the door, then looked back.  She couldn’t just leave her brother there.  He might kidnap her again.  And there were still the chains…

***

Skyril walked down the stone steps to catacombs.  She was still slightly confused, but at least she knew where she was going.  The girl who had burst through the window had helped her get the information she needed.  The girl had then introduced herself as Soot Featherwing, given Skyril a hug, and then jumped back out the window, leaving a greatly confused Skyril in her wake.

But even so, Skyril now knew at least part of what had happened to Thalia.  Someone had employed the man who ran the cemetery to set up a fake job that only a powerful mind reader like Thalia could complete.  They even went so far as to set up fake stories of people who had failed at the job.  Thalia would come down to the catacombs, the bosses behind this whole operation would send someone to kidnap her, and then she would be moved somewhere else.  That was all Skyril and Soot had been able to get out of the man.

Skyril pushed open the heavy wooden door to the catacombs, and was met with an ear-splitting shriek.  She leapt backwards, about to throw a knife into the room, when a familiar voice called out, “Stay back!  I’m warning you, I have a frying pan!”

Skyril almost burst out laughing.  She pushed open the door and found herself face to face with her friend March Pathway.

“Greetings and salutations Mar!” Skyril called cheerily.  Mar’s face went from fearsome, to confused, to ecstatic, all in about three seconds.

“Skyril!  Hiya!”  Mar flung herself at Skyril, wrapping her in a hug.  She stepped back and grinned, twirling her frying pan in her hand.  “Do you know where Thalia is?”

“She was kidnapped,” Skyril told her.

Mar sighed in exasperation.  “Again!?”

“What do you mean ‘again’?”

“Well…” Mar said slowly.  “There was the time that Sanguine kidnapped us both and tied us to chairs.  We escaped and beat him with said chairs.  And I guess the other time doesn’t really count, considering it was Mir that kidnapped Thalia, and she just put her in a closet.  Mir was mad because Thalia changed her hammer with a rubber chicken when she wasn’t looking and wouldn’t tell her where it was.”

“….Okay,” Skyril said slowly, thoroughly concerned for her friends' mental health and deeply amused at the same time.

“Yeah…well, I found Thalia’s sword and bag!” March declared happily, pointing to a spot on the dusty floor where a struggle had obviously taken place.  True to what Mar had said, Thalia’s sword and bag were lying there.

Skyril walked over and picked up the sword and bag.  She sighed.  The two objects meant a lot to Thalia.  She slung the bag over her shoulder and turned to Mar.

“I think we need to go interrogate the guy upstairs again.”

“Okey dokey!  Off we go!”

***

Thalia pushed the door open, her now chained up brother tucked under one arm.  She blinked.  She knew this hallway.

“Really?  He kept me in the cemetery building thingy?  Wow, uncreative,” Thalia grumbled to herself.  Bob-Finn stirred slightly, muttering incoherently.

“Oh, shut up,” she snapped at him, bonking him on the head with the gun again.  He fell back into blissful unconsciousness.

Thalia started off down the hall, heading to the office of the man who had interrogated her, hitting Bob-Finn when he stirred occasionally.  She reached the office in more time than it normally would have taken her.  She was weak after those two days in that room, and even more tired after her struggle.  Thalia tried the door handle.  It wasn’t locked, but there was something blocking it on the other side.

“Is every door in the world impassable today?” she whined.  There wasn’t really anything she could to do get it.  Her hands were weak and sweaty from dragging her brother through a building and up two flights of stairs, so Thalia wouldn’t have the grip to try to force open the door.

She glared at the door.  She had just had a bad day.  And when Thalia has bad days, she gets violent.

Thalia dropped the gun on the floor and picked up her brother with both hands, aiming his head at the door.  He could be useful for something: he could be an improvised battering ram.

***

Mar placed a chair under the door handle of the office.  She leaned against the wall next to the door, waving around her frying pan threatening, so the man wouldn’t try to escape.  Skyril was interrogating him again, but it seemed like she wasn’t getting any new information.  Mar sighed, and contemplated turning into a turtle, just for the heck of it.

“Skyril, I don’t think this is necessary,” she said.  Skyril looked over, not stopping her poking of the man who ran the cemetery.

“Why do you say that?”

Mar shrugged.   “Not sure.  I just have this feeling that Thalia is gonna turn up soon.”

Skyril opened her mouth to reply, when a sudden banging filled the room.  Mar leapt away from the door in shock.

BANG, BANG, BANG!  The chair started trembling.  Skyril pulled out her throwing knives, Mar got ready to shape-shift into a snow leopard to take out whatever was behind the door, and the man gulped and hid under his desk.

The chair was finally knocked over, and the door flew open, revealing a very disgruntled Thalia.  Her face was drawn into a vicious scowl, and she was holding an unconscious young man.  The man who ran the cemetery peeked out from under his desk and squeaked.  Thalia glared at him.  She tossed her burden down on the floor.

“Happy Halloween,” Thalia spat.  Then she fainted.

________________________________________________________________________

Happy early Halloween, everyone!

Anyway. Soot will come in again later in the story, I think. And so will Mir. And..........well, anyone else who wants to, I guess. If you want to be in the story, just link me to your OC. I can't promise that they'll appear in the next part of the story, or that they'll have a big role. I CAN promise, however, that they'll be there, that they will appear in at LEAST two different parts of the story, and that they will have at least one speaking part in each part they appear in (meaning three or more different parts in the conversation they are taking part in).That is my offer. I can't promise more than this because no matter how hard I try, I can't make everyone a main character. OK. I'm done rambling (again).