The Twisted Read online

  “DON’T LAUGH AT ME!” bellowed Simon the Ghost.

  But before he could say anything else Dave showed a black ring on his left index finger. Simon whimpered. He tried to run away, but he got sucked into it and as quick as he was there he was gone.

  Dave strode back to the Bentley. “Ghosts,” he muttered and everyone giggled, both impressed and a little nervous over what was about to unfold.

  The car drove on into the estate and pulled up at the black-painted mansion. It was a menacing looking building and perfect for someone like Richard Blake to be living in, they thought.

  A noise came from inside. The curtains were open – revealing a small red sofa on which Richard Blake was sitting.

  He saw them and his huge frame was soon darkening the door.

  He immediately released his shadows, which began circling the car, but while Daniel kept the shadows busy chasing him Rose snuck around the back of the house.

  She was utterly silent as she crept along, dagger in hand, and up behind him from inside. Richard Blake whirled around and just missed her head with a shadow punch.

  The dagger sunk into Blake’s back before he knew it.

  “Wow,” said Paolo, as they all walked back to the Bentley. “That was easy.”

  “Um… Paolo, I don’t think it was that easy,” said Vivian. She was looking out of the window and Richard Blake was running towards the car.

  Rose kicked him in the back. “You thought you could get rid of me!” he laughed. “No one gets rid of Richard Blake.”

  “Except for us,” shouted Dave, who slammed into him with the full force of his body.

  “It’s nine on one,” said Vivian, who kicked him.

  “Not for long,” sniggered Blake as monsters began to pour out of the house at an alarming rate. The group had no choice but to fend them off but Dave never let Richard Blake out of his sight.

  There were shadows circling and panic was rising at being outnumbered but the group kept their cool and sought out big toes for all they were worth. All around whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! They were gaining some ground and Blake was not happy.

  He punched Dave who fell to the ground but as Blake tried to pass him he was tripped up. Within seconds Ron and Venice pounced on his back to keep him still but they were no match for the power of the grand sorcerer who rose to his feet, throwing them off.

  As all the fighting was going on however Giuseppe had slipped away. He was coming through the door now, empty handed, and seemingly disinterested in doing anything worthwhile.

  “The Cube!” he suddenly heard Paolo say nearby as he frantically searched his pockets. “No. No, no, no, no, NO!”

  The Cube was gone.

  All of a sudden he took a blow to the head and was out cold.

  The girl was well awake by now. Her head was raised. She was staring into Ginger’s eyes.

  “Where am I? Who are you?” she asked calmly, exhaling.

  “This is going to sound really stupid – but you’re in The Magical Damage Hospital. The MDH Hospital is where you are.”

  “I know.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My father is a sorcerer, Bull Higgins, do you know him?”

  “Heard of him about town,” shrugged Ginger.

  “He got his magic from a small lake. He controls the element of water – one of only three in the world. My father is a miracle-worker.”

  “I bet that’s all jolly good, but who was that who attacked you.”

  The girl shrugged. “He said he wanted to kill my father. He sent a lightning bolt – he broke my force field.”

  Ginger’s eyebrows rose. “You have magic?”

  “Just a little bit. I’m only sixteen, for God’s sake!”

  “OK, OK!”

  “Who are you?”

  “First, you have to tell me who you are.”

  “My name’s Tiger. Tiger Higgins.”

  “Do you have brothers or sisters?”

  “I have two brothers and a sister.”

  “What are their names?”

  “My sister’s name is Jaguar. My brother’s names are Eagle and Buffalo.”

  “Did your father like animals?”

  “A bit. He thought of us as his pets – animals of prey.”

  “That’s good.”

  “I suppose. I’m the oldest, if you were wondering. Now, tell me what’s your name?”

  “My name is Ginger Bazaar.”

  “Nice name.”

  “I know.”

  A sudden jerk of movement on his shoulder woke Paolo. He was not dead. Everywhere hurt, his eyes were bulging and he was consumed by pain but he was not dead.

  He must have been out for a few minutes but presuming him dead the monsters had let him be. The last of those were being fought off by the rest of the group, as far as he could see.

  And to his right was Giuseppe – with something in his hand…It was the Cube!

  As he lay there, not daring to move he saw his brother stride across the front yard where all the battling was going on, and run to the front door where he began to slowly, as any good magician would, unravel metres of coloured handkerchiefs from his sleeve, each one connected to the other.

  ‘What on earth is he playing at?’ thought Paolo. ‘This is no time to try and break the states.’

  But he trusted his brother and he stayed still.

  After several seconds Giuseppe took an old leather suitcase out from behind the door and laid the handkerchiefs over it. With the magic wand he took from his inside jacket pocket he tapped three times on the suitcase and muttered something Paolo could not hear…..was no one else seeing this?!

  All around was continuing chaos. Rose was now taking on Richard Blake with Venice, Ron and Dave and while they were slowing him down they didn’t seem to be winning.

  Paolo turned back to look at Giuseppe just in time to see him catch his eye and give a wink. He then opened the suitcase and, just like Mary Poppins, he withdrew something it would appear could never possibly have fitted into that case – it was long and cylindrical and Paolo knew immediately what it was.

  As it stood there in all its glory he took the cube from his pocket. Rays of light, blue and silver, shone everywhere and he held it over the cylinder – which picked it up like a magnet, left it floating above the top for seconds and morphed into a sphere before being sucked down.

  Giuseppe had Richard Blake’s attention now and in his final seconds, the magician urged the rest of the group to turn to face their enemy…as he evaporated into nothing and one by one the rest of his Twisted Army joined their leader into nothingness.

  “Ah, Ms Bazaar!” said a voice from behind her. Ginger turned around to see a white-haired man standing there – a doctor, she presumed.

  “Hello. If… you don’t mind me asking, who exactly are you?”

  “Oh, don’t be silly,” the man replied. Shadows began to leak out of his eyes.

  Ginger let out a scream and lashed at the man, but she was sent twirling backwards. She felt her back breaking as she crashed into a wall.

  She lay there as the man closed in. She heard his footsteps – hard like stone. She closed her eyes tight.

  There was a burst of green light and Ginger was forced to open her eyes. The light was blinding. The shadow man’s footsteps stopped.

  There, standing in the man’s place was Tiger Higgins, clutching herself. The Shadow had broken the window as it left.

  “You just saved my life,” said Ginger, in awe.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “I thought you said you had little magic.”

  “I was afraid you’d kill me if I told you how powerful I really was.”

  “I won’t kill you. What is your level of power?”

  “Basically, I could take over the world with my power. I’m more powerful than The Baroness. I’m more powerful than Richard Blake.”

  Ginger giggled. “Don’t be silly,”

  “I’m not being silly. I’m being truthful.
”

  Ginger’s mouth dropped open. “So you could just kill me right now with your hands.”

  “Exactly. I could kill you right now.”

  “Which you won’t be doing, I hope.”

  Tiger shrugged. “Expect the unexpected.”

  Now despite the world being rid of the most powerful sorcerer that ever lived very few people yet knew of the existence of Tiger Higgins – the most powerful enemy of all.

  It looked sheer impossible to get out of Opal Drive. After the incident, hundreds of people some mortal some immortal, had piled into the house, most of them journalists.

  Paolo had answered a few questions and left it at that, Dave was the same while the others shied away – all except Giuseppe of course…the undisputed hero!

  “It’s all in a days work,” he could be heard saying to camera. “It was nothing really. Anyone in my position would have done the same thing.”

  “All the clichés in the book!” laughed Vivian and Daniel, but no one begrudged him.

  “At the end of the day,” he continued. “Some people may scoff at magic, in the traditional sense. Some people believe that unless you are a sorcerer or a wizard or a witch that magic is not real but today just proved that, once again, The Great Fragola Brothers are what magic is really all about.”

  The crowd went wild and Giuseppe pulled his brother close as cameras flashed everywhere.

  “I think we might just crack America now,” he whispered and Paolo nodded and laughed too.

  Eventually people started to move on – some back to their newsrooms to file the story and some just home to gossip about it.

  As Paolo and Giuseppe made their way back to the Bentley where the rest of the gang were waiting on them a pretty young woman with short hair and glasses grabbed Paolo’s arm leaving ‘Giuseppe to go ahead.

  “Excuse me. Don’t worry, I’m not a reporter,” she said quickly. “I need to tell you something urgently.”

  The men were intrigued.

  “I have learned of a girl. She is 16 years old. Her name is Tiger Higgins.”

  “I really don’t have time,” said Paolo, pushing past her. He was exhausted and just wanted to go home.

  “Listen!” She pulled him back. “She has the power to destroy the world. She is more powerful than Blake. She’s coming – and she’s going to destroy us all.”

  Paolo froze. “Is she coming soon?”

  “From what I sense, she’ll take about a year to get to her full level of power but when she does she could kill us all with a flick of her hand. It could happen and no one could stop her.”

  “OK,” said Paolo

  “Keep in touch.” She said, and left him with a business card and a sincere smile.

  “Who was that?” asked Giuseppe when he approached.

  Paolo checked the business card. “Emma Vantage. Elite Crime Squad, it says.”

  “What was she talking to you about?”

  “She said they’ve tracked down a girl. She’s 16 years old and she’s more powerful than Blake – or at least she will be.”

  “That’s bad.”

  “Very,” admitted Paolo. “We’ll all die she said.”

  “Well we better make do with all the time we have left,” he joked half-heartedly.

  “Only a year.”

  “Ah well. That’s life for you. Or should I say that’s death for you?”

  “The latter.”

  “Cool.”

  Giuseppe put his hands in his pockets and sighed. They probably would try and stop her – but they didn’t have much confidence that they would not succeed.

  Some people called Emma Vantage a pessimist. She considered herself a Believer. A Believer of life and death was what she was. The world is an on-going sphere, life coming and going.

  She liked her little office on Broadway. It was nice to hear the noise of the theatre. There was no use for her office really except for her own luxury. Emma had never been one to care much about others. She ran her own business fighting crime and had no real need for anyone else.

  Or at least that’s what she had always thought. Perhaps the visit to Richard Blake’s house and the people, or rather person, she met as part of it, would change her mind.

  It was the day after the huge event and most people had, had a lie in but The Fragola Brothers were up.

  “I had a dream last night,” said Giuseppe. “About that girl.”

  Paolo who had been looking out the window turned to him and said; “I know, me too,” as he held up Emma’s business card.

  “Not that girl!” said his brother laughing. The one she spoke about! The powerful one!”

  “Oh,” said Paolo, embarrassed. “Of course.”

  “I think we need to do something.”

  “Yes me too, and we need to act fast.”

  “Got any suggestions?”

  There was a pause and then Paolo said: “Well I’ve a few tricks up my sleeve if you must know.”

  At that the two brothers burst out laughing – happy in the knowledge that the latest hurdle had been jumped but knowing full well that another huge one was just around the corner.