ACCESS DENIED
Kyle's hands shook as he placed the last of the wires back
into the panel.
He
turned around, while wiping the sweat off of his forehead, and looked at
the
five pairs of expectant eyes. "There, that should do it. It's
ready to
take
the new data," he said.
"So,"
Isabel said, as her eyes darted towards the door, "you fixed it? She
won't
be able to get in there anymore?"
The
'there' that Isabel was referring to was the Granilth chamber and the
'she'
was Tess.
"Nope,"
Kyle said, "not when we change it.
"And
she'll get a new surprise if the wrong data is given," Max said.
"But, what should we change it to," Kyle asked
Everyone
thought to themselves. Then, Maria began to smile wickedly. She
walked
over to Kyle and whispered something in his ear. He then, in turn,
got
the very same grin on his face.
"Your
a genius," he said, and then turned to the panel.
The
anarchy had ensued only a few days ago. Max had called a meeting at the
rock
quarry, the first one that Kyle had been invited to. Perhaps invited
wasn't
the proper word, Max had come into The Crashdown and demanded that
Maria,
Liz and Kyle meet with the aliens later that day. Kyle wasn't about
to
argue with the guy. Max was looking rather squirrelly lately and he know
that
he was no match for freak-ass alien powers.
The
meeting, which started out with Max snidely asking Liz which of them had
killed
Alex, quickly went from bad to worse. Kyle noticed immediately that,
except
for Tess, the aliens were avoiding eye contact with the humans. Tess
looked
expectantly at Max, who was avoiding her gaze. She then said,
abruptly,
"I'm pregnant." Kyle's first instant was to laugh. She
said it
so
flatly, with no emotion whatsoever, like she had just said, 'I got a new
binder'.
He then saw the look on Max's face and knew it was true. He
turned
to Maria and Liz to gauge their reaction. Liz was clenching her jaw,
attempting
to show no reaction. Maria silently began walking towards the
aliens.
Tess jumped out of her way, but she was mistaken, Maria wasn't
after
Tess. When she reached Max, she cracked him across the face with such
a
blow that it made him rock back upon his heels. "HOW COULD
YOU," she
screamed
as she pummeled him with her fists. He barely tried to defend
himself.
Kyle looked to Michael, he expected him to intervene, but he wa
nervously
playing with his too-long hair.
Kyle
sighed an then walked over to where Maria was using Max as a punching
bag.
He grabbed one of her hands and pulled her off of him. She began to
tussle
with him, too, but then her body went limp in his arms, all of the
fight
gone out of her. They walked back to where Liz was standing, his arm
still
around her for support.
"That's
what you brought us here for," Liz questioned, coldly. "Did you
want
help planning the baby shower Tess?" She hissed the girl's name.
"Liz,"
Isabel began weakly, but Liz cut her off.
"What
Isabel," she asked. Seeing the pain and fury behind Liz'z eyes, she
just
shook her head, knowing there was nothing she could say to make Liz, or
any
of them, feel better.
"The
reason we called you here," Michael said, answering Liz's previous
question,
"is to tell you we're leaving. You two knew that Alex cracked the
book's
code and the books tells us how to go home, using the granilth.
Tess's
baby can't survive in this atmosphere."
"Too
bad the same can't be said about it's mother," Maria said, not
bothering
to whisper. She then processed the first part of his sentence.
"You're
ALL leaving?" Kyle could feel Maria's body tense through the hand
he
had on the small of her back.
Michael
nodded. Liz looked quickly at Maria, but it was her turn to be
calm.
"Have a safe trip home," she said perkily and then spun on her hell
and
began to walk back to the Jetta. Liz and Kyle followed her example.
Isabel
opened her mouth to call after them, but she realized there was
nothing
else to say. Over the next few days, the foursome read through the
book
and learned that, in addition to being a traveling mechanism, the
granilth
could also be used for healing, as a weapon and for time travel.
They
busily worked on mastering how to use the granilth and Max even
installed
a voice activated door that would only admit those who knew the
password.
Michael told him that he was being paranoid but Max wouldn't
listen.
He was more and more agitated when they were all together. He only
seemed
to be his old self when Tess wasn't around, Isabel thought she was
stressing
him out. She was incredibly concerned for Max, which was why, the
night
before they were set to leave, she dremwalked into his mind, and
discovered
the truth.
Max
was having a nightmare. It looked like he was trapped in a translucent
cage.
He was screaming to get out. Max noticed Isabel and began to speak
frantically
to her. At least, he tried to. She saw his lips moving
quickly,
but all that came out was, "I love Tess, I've been taking her for
granted,
We have to go home and She's the queen." It was like a watching a
poorly
dubbed foreign film. An ugly idea began to sprout in her head. She
ripped
herself out of Max's dream.
She
sat up in her bed and looked around her room for her yearbook. Finding
it,
she found the Hs and began dreamwalking again.
She
found herself in a child's room, all done in pink. There was a
beautiful
canopy bed, a toy chest and a puppet stage. In the middle of the
room
was Tess, cackling. That was the only word for it. She was playing
with
the puppet stage and appeared to have dolls in the likeness of all of
Isabel's
friends. She was playing with the Max and Liz puppets. "I hate
you,
I love Tess," she said, doing a foul impression of Max. Isabel hid
behind
a dresser, she new if she were spotted, Tess would not be happy.
After
playing with the Max puppet for a little while, Tess threw it down and
exclaimed,
"I'm bored, what can I do now?" He face went utterly blank,
after
a few second, however, it lit up. She took a remote control car out,
along
with the Alex doll. Isabel felt sick to her stomach when she saw what
Tess
did next. She secured the doll to the car and then rammed it, full
speed,
into the wall. "Oh, it was much better the first time, at least THAT
Al
screamed." Isabel felt rage come upon her but had to control
it. Tess
then
walked over to the bed and grabbed a pillow. She stuffed it up her
shirt
and walked over to the mirror. "Oh my god," she said, "I'm
pregnant.
They're
all so dumb, but at least I've got me a ticket home now." The
horrible
laughter emanated from her throat. It was all Isabel could take,
she
forced herself awake and then ran into Max's room.
Kyle
couldn't believe it. He had gotten a frantic call from Isabel, she
needed
him to convince the girls to meet with them again. It had taken all
of
his charm to get them to agree to it. They met at his place, his DAd was
over
at Maria's, yet again. After Isabel told her story, breaking down a
bit
when she got to the part about Alex, Kyle felt numb all over. He saw
the
same shock on Maria and Liz's face. "I'm so dumb," was the
first thing
Maria
said.
"Maria,"
Max said, "barely looking at her. NONE of us figured it out.
And
we
ALL knew that she could mindwarp people. I just didn't want to believe
that
she would use her powers that way."
"I
know," she said, "but I'm so much smarter than the rest of you, I
SHOULD
have
figured it out."
The
rest of the group looked at her in amusement.
"So,"
Liz said softly, "it was all made up, you know, everything, including,
you
know...." she trailed off.
Isabel
nodded firmly, "ALL of it, I could feel that in the dream."
"Sorry
I kicked your ass," Maria said as she sat down next to Max.
"I
deserved it," he said.
"It
wasn't your fault, man," Kyle said, "though I think you should sue
her
for
emotional distress."
The
mood lightened considerably. "Hey," Liz said, "where's
Michael?"
"Don't
know," Isabel said. "I told him to be here by now."
"Michael
knows about this, right?" Kyle asked. Isabel and Max nodded.
"And
he
had a bad temper and poor impulse control. Does anyone know where Tess
is?"
"He's
not that dumb, I mean only and idiot would......" Max began and then
they
all leapt to their feet to prepare to go look for him, Liz leading the
pack.
At
that moment, he came in the door. He was bloodied and bruised.
"Tess,
gone crazy, don't know what she'll do," he said as he collapsed into
Liz's
arms.
When
he was more coherent he told them he had gone looking for Tess, found
her,
then confronted her. It had not gone well. She was now on her way
to
the
granilth chamber. Max decided he would have to lecture Michael later,
god
only knew what she would do with the power of the granilth.
When
they got to the pod chamber, it was easy to piece together what had
happened.
Tess had forgotten the password to the chamber, they had to
reprogram
it with simple words to begin with so she could remember it but
that
hadn't help, and then ripped the panel apart in frustration.
"Anybody
know anything about electronics, please, somebody say yes," Maria
said.
"Yeah,
I do," Kyle said and then stepped up to the panel.
Kyle's
hands shook as he placed the last of the wires back into the panel.
He
turned around, while wiping the sweat off of his forehead, and looked at
the
five pairs of expectant eyes. "There, that should do it. It's
ready to
take
the new data," he said.
"So,"
Isabel said, as her eyes darted towards the door, "you fixed it? She
won't
be able to get in there anymore?"
The
'there' that Isabel was referring to was the Granilth chamber and the
'she'
was Tess.
"Nope,"
Kyle said, "not when we change it.
"And
she'll get a new surprise if the wrong data is given," Max said.
But,
what should we change it to," Kyle asked
Everyone
thought to themselves. Then, Maria began to smile wickedly. She
walked
over to Kyle and whispered something in his ear. He then, in turn,
got
the very same grin on his face.
"Your
a genius," he said, and then turned to the panel.
Tess
was enraged. They had found it, she didn't know how, but they had.
She
had tried to kill Michael, but THAT hadn't even worked cause she just
couldn't
focus on him. And then she had gone to use the granilth to kill
them
and could remember the damn password. She tried guinea pig, ferret,
hamster,
it was something like that. But, it wouldn't take it so she ripped
the
panel apart in frustration. She had found where they were meeting,
though
and had followed them back to the pod chamber. She gave them a few
last
minutes together, she was sure they were panicking in there. It would
be
good to hear them all scream, just like Al had done.
She
entered the chamber and grabbed the person closest to her. Maria.
"OK,"
she said, looking around the room and noticing that they had fixed the
voice
activated door, "tell me the new password or blonde here gets it."
"Tess,"
Maria said calmly, "I don't think you want to know the password,
trust
me."
"Shut
up, I should have killed YOU instead of Al. At least I could maybe
control
him with my low cut tops. Tell me, or you die."
"Maria,"
Max said calmly, "you had better tell her."
"Ok,"
Maria said. She craned her head to look at Tess. "The Dupree
girl,
her
first name is the password."
Tess
threw Maria towards the rest of the group and quickly stepped up to the
door.
"Lahhhriee,"
she said, pleased with herself for remembering the girl's name.
"Access
Denied," came the computer voice from the door.
Then
the new surprise kicked it, the granilith was activated and shot a beam
through
the door, right into Tess, making her go poof.
The
group helped Maria to her feet, "Well, at least her annoying
pronunciation
quirks finally paid off."
The end