Chosen by Lisa Mears

arm.
‘Max was telling me that to get
things in this world you have to have money to buy them,’ said
Gilster thoughtfully, ‘I could make a fortune here, singing
houses.’
‘You’d hate the fame and crowds
that came with it, remember they don’t have singers here, you’d be
a novelty,’ said Daria.
‘Mmm, you’re probably right, I
hadn’t thought of that.’
‘Don’t get too attached to this
place, we’ll be leaving soon . . . I hope. By the way, you still
have my scroll, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ said Gilster, ‘it’s in
my bag.’
‘I think I might put it my
backpack, the one I bought when I went shopping with Max. I’ll just
get it from your room,’ she said rising from the sofa, ‘I’ll be
right back.’
She retrieved the scroll from
Gilster’s bag and went into her own room. Hiding the parchment in
the lining of her backpack, she returned it to the top shelf of the
wardrobe, ‘mustn’t forget to take it with me when we go,’ she
thought.
Spying Shibby sleeping on a
pile of clothes at the back of the wardrobe, she smiled. ‘You look
comfortable,’ she said, rubbing him under the chin. Shibby hissed
loudly and ran from the room. She pulled her hand back
instinctively, ‘what’s wrong with him,’ she thought. Then she heard
it too, a scuffling sound, followed by muffled cries and a loud
bang. She jumped. ‘Gilster? What are you doing? Are you all right?’
The hairs on the back of her neck began to rise. ‘Something’s
wrong,’ she thought. Quickly, looking around for something to use
as a weapon, she grabbed the nearest thing she could find; a table
lamp with a heavy brass base. Creeping cautiously back down the
hallway, she listened for any sound coming from the lounge room;
there was none. ‘Please,’ she said over and over again, ‘please,
let Gilster be alright.’
Entering the lounge room,
table-lamp clutched tightly in her hands, she noticed Gilster’s
feet sticking out from behind the sofa. The lamp fell from her
hand, forgotten. She ran to the sofa, frightened of what she might
find. Steeling herself to look, she saw Gilster lying on the floor
with a gaping wound in his shoulder; blood was soaking into the
carpet and spreading out from beneath his body. She screamed and
dropped to her knees. Not sure if he was dead or alive she lifted
his head and shook him gently.
‘Gilster . . . Gilster, what
happened?’
His eyelids fluttered. ‘Run,’
he said his voice barely a whisper as he struggled for breath, ‘run
now, they’re here.’ The effort proved too much, his eyes closed,
his head fell back. Daria had no time to react as someone grabbed
her roughly from behind hauling her to her feet, fingers digging
painfully into her skin. She was pulled away from Gilster towards
the centre of the room, kicking and screaming as she went. Three
men surrounded her. Tears for Gilster and herself ran down her
cheeks.
‘What have you done,’ she
sobbed, still struggling to get free. The man holding her was too
strong and she was quickly subdued.
‘Search the place,’ said a one
eyed man, ‘see if anyone else is here and then we can get going.’
He turned his attention to Daria. ‘I’m so sorry Chosen,’ he said
sarcastically, ‘he got in the way is all, so we killed him.’ He
laughed at Daria’s stricken face.
The other man returned. ‘If
there was anyone else, they’ve gone,’ he said.
‘Damn,’ spat the one eyed man,
‘I was hoping to catch all of them in one go, never mind, we know
approximately where they’re heading, perhaps we’ll get lucky and
find them. We can’t hang around waiting for them, much as I’d like
to.’
‘Why’s that then?’ said the man
who had searched the place.
‘Idiot,’ screeched the one eyed
man, ‘the machine has a time limit and it’s nearly up. Come on,
activate that thing, we don’t want to get stuck here forever, let’s
get this Chosen back to Anubis and collect our reward. We’ll find
the others eventually.’
At the