Summary: They parted friends, right? At least she thought they did. But why is he holding her captive? Again? (set after Opal Deception)
Disclaimer: I own... I'll have to think about that for a while. To make things shorter, tell everyone you know that the author of the books owns this. You know who that is, right?
Author's notes: Er... First ever fic. It's going to be a bit weird, but I just have to get this out of my system.
Holly was sitting behind her desk, bored.Mulch hadn't arrived from Madrid yet (who knows why he had to go there), and Artemis was somewhere in Europe with his parents for summer vacation. There was no one around to tease, and the costs of calls had risen, yet again.
It bothered her that she wasn't chasing her dream anymore. But still, part of her dream was to protect and to serve the whole fairy population, but that monster of a gnome, Sool, wasn't exactly the kind of person to let her chase that part.
No, life wasn't going easy at all. Except for now. But who could appreciate easiness when you were bored out of your wits? Grub Kelp, probably. The only person she knew who could do that.
Holly stood up and sighed. She had to control her eating habits, but how many times a lifetime do you get to eat as much as you want without getting fatter or heavier? She made a mental note to go visit the doctor to ask why her digestive system was working so fast. She opened the refrigerator and found that Mulch had eaten almost everything. Well then. Maybe she could tell him off by selling it. Why they needed one in an office, she would never know.
She felt her muscles relaxing. Why didn't I see this coming? She asked herself, furiously trying to take the pad off her wrist. But it was a losing battle. She was being paralyzed, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. Her eyes were closing, and she couldn't move, couldn't see. She was losing it.
Mulch opened the door carefully. He knew something was wrong. Holly hadn't come out to greet him when he came back. Somehow she always knew when he arrived. But he hadn't heard anything. There weren't even signs of a struggle. The refrigerator door was closed, the papers were stacked in a neat pile, her desk was clean, his desk was messy, and there were no footprints. Nothing was unusual. It was like she had vanished from thin air.
He spotted the communicator on her desk. She usually kept it on her desk when she was here. But she wasn't here. Then he knew something was really wrong.
He was sleepy. The trip from Madrid was tiring, and surely Holly could take care of herself. He could ask for help in the morning.
Artemis woke up suddenly. He had expected to feel refreshed, since he had slept early last night, but he was, if possible, moreexhausted now than yesterday. Perhaps it was jet lag, but he never got jet lag. He always got up refreshed at six thirty, local time or not.
"Butler," he said. Butler opened the door and stood beside his bed.
"Something is wrong. I cannot quite place what it is. There isno evidence of something being wrong, but then, there isno evidence that something isn't wrong. I just woke up tired. That is not supposed to happen, because sleeping is when your body-"
Butler stopped him mid-lecture, something that didn't happen often. "Artemis, that can happen sometimes. Perhaps you were only half-asleep. You don't get much rest from being only half-asleep."
"Surely I had a full sleep last night. The flight was extremely uncomfortable and long yesterday."
He lay back down, thinking. He didn't do this often. He was normally the one who woke his parents up. He did not like wasting time in bed when there was a lot to do after breakfast.
There was a knock at the door. "Arty," his parents called. "Open the door."
His hair wasn't combed, and he wasn't even dressed yet. But he still got up and opened the door to find two smiling faces staring at him in the corridor.
"You can go to breakfast like that if you want, you know. No one is going to finish the eggs this time." His mother said, laughing.
He scowled, remembering last summer when his parents had decided to try something different and booked them into a hotel.
"Come on, now. Why such a bad mood on a lovely morning? The skies are blue, the sun is glorious, the grass is green and the lagoon still has mist hovering over it. What more could you want?" his father said happily.
"Yes, this summer house is quite beautiful, but I miss my laptop," he said truthfully, leaving out the part that he was tired. "Mother just had to convince me not to bring it. It gets boring, just watching birds fly from tree to tree. They do not seem to do much else."
Butler smiled. Typical Artemis, he thought.
"Then don't watch the birds. Eat breakfast. You need your food. You're getting too thin." His mother said, holding his hand and leading him to the table.
He sat down near the head of the table. After they had breakfast and he had changed into his usual dark two-piece suit ("Artemis, you shouldn't be on vacation like that", said his mother), the three of them went walking around the grounds. He promptly forgot about his exhaustion as hewatched the birds fly from tree to tree.
Author's notes: Well? Was it terrible? Was it okay? Was it good? I've still got quite a few more chapters to go, though... so if you didn't like it, tell me and if loads don't like it I will not continue the fic.