Norman was shocked to see Max’s bedroom door open and no one in the whole house. He had just came back from sending Virginia off the jetty and decided that it was time to let Max out of the room for a while, despite the fact that she had warned him not to let him out. He thinks that she had been too harsh on him and he deserved a break. Besides it’ll only be for a time being. He’ll be back in the room again when Virginia comes home.
But now the trouble was brewing as he found that Max’s room was completely empty and the whole house was deserted. He wasn’t up in the secret attic—his diving gear were still there neatly stashed in a corner—and he was nowhere near Bea or Felix’s house or anyone else’s house in particular. He wasn’t even in the jetty. He couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Max, oh, Max, sonny boy, where in the blazes are you?”
Max followed the spirits quickly yet silently towards their destination. He didn’t where he was going and how long had he been running but he was sure that he was getting closer and closer towards his ultimate goal. They swerved right and swerved left, with the blonde-haired-blue-eyed boy trying to keep up with the spirit lot, until finally he found himself standing in front of the abandoned mansion at the far edge of the village.
Max heard stories about this place when he and his friends were kids—that this place used to belong to an eccentric rich man who couldn’t find a wife despite his riches and that he got so lonely and so upset that he went mad and committed suicide in that very house. Max, the adventurous boy he was, had often thought about venturing into this old mansion but he was always dragged away by some grown-ups or driven away by the caretaker of this mansion. Seeing that the spirits glided into the mansion door, he braved himself and pushed the door open, letting himself in.
Inside the mansion, he could see more spirits hovering around the place. They also smelled of incense but they were not as black as the snake-like spirits that brought him to this freaky house. They were white as cotton and their faces didn’t seem much of a happy face at all, they were moaning and groaning and sobbing like they were in some kind of invisible torture. One of them wounded itself around Max, pulling him away from the stairs the black spirits tried to lead him, but one of the black spirits hissed at it, disintegrating it into white smoke. Max felt kind of creepy and cold, but his adventurous and hot-blooded spirit got the hang of him. Finally he stopped in front of a dimly-lit room which was heavily filled with incense smell. He hesitated to walk in when the spirits slipped into the seam of the open door.
“Come in, come in, sonny boy,” a deep voice rumbled from inside the room. As Max stepped in carefully, the voice continued to rumble, “You mustn’t lurk in the doorway. It’s rude.”
Max almost gasped in awe at the ever cold, menacing SkullMaster standing before him beside a huge cauldron which could probably fit in a full-sized horse and make horse soup out of it. He stood tall and proud in his purple attire: purple body-fitting shirt, light purple tights and violet boots and cape. There was something in his cold piercing eyes that reminded Max of someone else but he couldn’t put a mind to it who it was.
“I know why you’re here,” SkullMaster said as he took his staff and stirred the cauldron. Mists came out of it, forming an image of Max’s long-time love, Princess Phoebe. “You’re absolutely heads over heels for this little mermaid of yours. Well, I don’t blame you. She quite a catch now, isn’t she?”
Max blushed. He didn’t think that he was so transparent that even someone who lived far away from civilization would know about his secret. SkullMaster grinned and waved his staff over the mists, making it disappear.
“Well then, sonny boy. The solution to your problem is simple. The only way to get what you want is to become a merman yourself.”
Max gasped in awe. Him, becoming a merman and live and breathe among the merpeople and alongside with his true love? That would be simply awesome! He asked tentatively, “Can you…do that?”
“My dear sweet sonny boy,” SkullMaster ruffled Max’s head beneath the red cap he always wore wherever he went. “That’s exactly the things that I do. It’s what I’m here for, to help unfortunate people like yourself. Why do you think I would pay so much for your village and your church if not for the well-being of it all? But I must say you are the first person in this village except the church members who has ever seen my true face. Do not tell anyone. I like to keep a low profile.”
Max nodded. He would apply to any condition necessary for him to be with his Princess Phoebe.
“Well, before we come to any deals, I always start with the discussion of something to pay with,” SkullMaster reminded the hot-blooded teen.
“But…But I don’t have…” Max was struck into reality when he didn’t bring his wallet along for this. He didn’t expect to pay anything until the job is done.
“I’m not asking much,” SkullMaster said with an assuring voice. “Just a token and we’ll be joyful! What I want from you is a rose.”
“A rose?” Max repeated.
“Yes, boy, a rose. But not just some ordinary rose you can get from your neighbour’s garden, oh no. You have to get the rose from the castle of the Beastess.”
“The…The Beastess?! You mean that castle where it was rumoured to be lurking with dark, gloomy demons and their leader would be the legendary Beastess?!”
“Yes, that’s the one,” SkullMaster replied. “In her garden lay bushes upon bushes of roses and you must pick the freshest, biggest and reddest one. That’s your first payment.”
“There’s more to pay? What else do you need, a gargoyle’s egg or a dragon’s horn or…”
“Just a small finishing touch to the debts. Your voice.”
This time Max was really struck. He touched his throat and stammered, “M…My voice?”
“You got it, sonny boy. No more talking, singing, zip!”
“But…But without my voice…” Max tried to reason with him, “how can I…”
“Talk with your sweetheart?” SkullMaster finished for him. “You’ve got your looks and your handsome face. And don’t underestimate the importance of the body language. Now go, get me the rose first, or else we have no deal.”
Without warning and within seconds, Max found himself standing in front of the mansion again, dazed and dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe that this mysterious SkullMaster would demand such a ridiculous payment that might cost him his life. The legend about the Beastess wasn’t fake either; many have been there and never ever returned. Norman did tell him about seeing the castle where the Beastess resides and was lucky to pass by there alive without being seen. All this trouble just to make a stupid payment to transform him into a merman!
A merman…He began to imagine himself swimming side by side with Princess Phoebe without the care in the world, living forever in the depths of the sea heedless of anything going on in the shore. Her beautiful face and her flawless skin were irresistible to the touch…surely such a transformation was worth all the trouble and the payment, even if it means unable to talk to her…He never exactly talked to her face to face during his secret visits anyway…
Finally, his footsteps could be heard echoing down the village road towards the jetty to catch the last boat that was leaving Fishermen’s Friend Village.
Virginia struggled to open her eyes. She didn’t know how long was she unconscious but she was sure that she was nowhere on the ship that she was taking to her archaeology HQ. She slowly picked up her drenched body and stood up, staggering a little before getting her bearing straight. She looked around and saw that she was standing on a small cliff that was about a few miles away from a huge dense forest just before her. Absentmindedly, she walked towards the forest, not caring what might be ahead of her as long as it led her to some kind of shelter.
As her mind began to clear, she recalled what had happened to her: she was on her way to her archaeology HQ with the precious dinosaur bones she got from the hill mound behind her home. She had not known for sure what species were the bones of this dinosaur is, but she had an idea that it could be a brontosaurus or something larger than that. Before she could pay more attention to the bones, her ship was caught in a storm and she found herself hanging on for dear life not to drown because this discovery was one of a kind and she wasn’t willing to let this chance go away. But all was lost as the ship hit something solid and she found her and the bones flung straight down to the depths of the sea. She clung for her dear life on a small piece of plank and fell unconscious as a huge wave brought her a dozen feet high up to the sky and sent her crashing down on solid ground. When she opened her eyes, she found herself on that small cliff.
She continued to trudge on, hoping to find some place to stay and hang out for a while before leaving back home empty-handed and dreams gone. Suddenly she felt as if there was a sort of spooky presence around her. She looked around but saw nothing. She quickened her pace and soon felt the aura dangerously close and threatening. She braved herself to look around and saw that it was a pack of hungry wolves tailing behind her, their yellow eyes giving her a dangerous look. Seeing that she had discovered their silent stalking, they didn’t bother to hide anymore. They went charging at her with their teeth bare, ready to chomp her flesh off and fill their stomachs. Virginia let out a horrified scream and started running, trying to get away from those hungry wolves and avoid herself from being wolves’ dinner. She fell once or twice, scraping her skin and skinning her face and legs, but she kept on running. Her clothes began to tear and was close to become that of a beggar’s clothes, but she pressed on, all the while trying to keep her feet moving as she could feel the wolves gaining close, snapping at her ankles.
Soon, she saw a huge gate in front of her. It stood tall at about 10 or 15 feet above her and for a minute there she felt like a midget before this gate. It was as black as soot and its towering height seemed menacing and dark, but seeing that the wolves were incoming closer and closer towards her, she couldn’t care less anymore. She pushed the gate open and barged into it. She slammed it shut just in the nick of time before the wolves were able to clamp their jaws onto her thigh. They did pull at her jeans but Virginia hastily kicked it away, sending it whining back into the forests. The rest of the pack followed suite. When she noticed that she was perfectly safe from harm’s way, she finally turn around to have a good look at what place has kept her from becoming a human sushi.
What displayed in front of her shocked her and struck her with awe.
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