THE BLAKES

Alex and John straightaway went to Peter. When they reached Peter’s house, He warmly welcomed them both and took them to the hall. His servant came and laid some cookies on the table and left for kitchen. Though he had a rough voice, Peter welcomed them very warmly, as always. He asked “So, Blake brothers, what brings you to me?” Alex took out the scroll from a cylindrical box. Alex then said “We want you to examine this.” Alex handed over the scroll to Peter. He took out his glasses and put them right above his nose as he usually does. He opened the scroll and started to examine it carefully. But as soon as he started reading it, he shouted at Alex “Who do you think you are, eh? Do you know how much these cookies cost and you are spoiling my sofa. Get the hell out of here, both of you. You and your scroll! I shouldn’t have even welcomed you in. Get out before I call the Police.” Alex and John were surprised with Peter’s behavior. Even Peter’s maid was frightened by the sudden change in her master’s behavior. She had never seen her master behave so violently. He was always so nice. She was afraid that he may even kick her out also! And unlike Alex and John, she had nowhere else to go. Alex and John rushed out in a flash. They took a cab and set on back to home. There were some minutes of silence. Then Alex spoke “Weird man, don’t you think?” John replied after some seconds “Well, he behaved so nicely at first, and then when he started staring at that scroll, he suddenly turned wild. The scroll did something to him. It made him mad. You are following me, aren’t you?” Alex said in a bit low voice “Yes, I do. Well we can’t go to Peter again asking about this scroll. What do we do now?” “Why say Peter, We can’t show this scroll to anybody. It will make them also mad!!I think it is intended that we don’t take this to anyone. I guess what we do now is to prepare for our trip.” “What about Mathew, John? We can’t just leave him there. If we even do, what excuse will we make? We are going to meet the Greek Gods!!! Is that what you are going to tell him?” “Ha ha, very funny, Alex. OK. We are not going to leave him alone. We will send him to Max. We will say to him that we were called for an emergency meeting at Greece” The cab driver was about to get friendly with them. But when he heard them speak about turning people mad with a scroll, he assumed that they both were Magicians or Psychic!! He got frightened and decided not to speak a word till they reached their home. He was afraid that they will turn him also into a mad person!! John checked his watch and then said to the driver “Faster driver, faster. My son will reach home from school any minute.” The driver’s hand shivered and drove it as fast as he could. When they finally reached home, the driver charged them a reasonable fare. But when John heard the fare, he became furious “So much for this small distance. I will give you only this much.” And gave him lesser amount than what the driver had demanded. The driver was really scared to ask anything!! John started on the way to his home. Alex felt sorry for the poor and frightened driver. He took out his wallet and gave him the balance fare he demanded earlier and said “Don’t worry about John. He gets pretty furious sometimes. Just don’t mind him.” The driver said thanks to Alex’s kind words and drove off. Alex ran after John. He asked him “Why did you get angry with him? I didn’t see any reason.” “I too don’t really know. It just came to me suddenly.” Said John a bit tired. They were very glad knowing that Mathew hasn’t reached from school yet. They both were tired. Alex took two small bottles of juice. He gave one to John and had one for himself. Just as they had the last sip, the doorbell rang. Alex went and looked. Just as he unbolted and opened a bit, a black colored smoke came and blew the door open!! Alex fell down on his back. John helped Alex get up. The black smoke first covered the whole room. Then it started taking the shape of a man. A man with black robe, black suit and black pants stood there!! It just came from nothing other than the black smoke!! He said in a grumpy and loud voice “Hey, Alex. Hey John. How’s Roark and Nemesis?” Alex replied “How do you know our names? What is your name?” John then asked “Is it you who gave us Roark and Nemesis?” For this he replied “Ha ha, three questions, but one answer. I will not say it.” Alex then asked him “Then why did you come here?” He laughed and said “Well, the big brothers sent me. We know that your trip is on next Saturday and today is only Monday. They can’t wait that longer. So, let’s make it shorter.” And he took out a small digital watch from his pocket. Alex and John peeped to look. They could see that the watch had no switch in it except a small one on the top. In the screen, there was only today’s day and date. No time! The man told them to hold to his shoulders. Something made them obey him!! As they did, he pressed the small switch. When Alex and John saw that nothing has happened for some time, they felt confused what next to expect. Alex tried to put his weight into his right leg. That was when he found that he couldn’t feel his legs at all. He looked down to see in horror that there were no legs!! There were no legs for the others either!! It was as if it got vanished.