The Three Furies (Erec Rex) (37 page)

Nightmare Realm!
Erec stopped in his tracks. What would happen to Wandabelle when he was gone? Once he was caught by the
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snakelike officer and delivered to his enemy, who would save the Clown Fairy? He sighed and started walking again.

"You okay?" Jack asked, concerned.

"Yeah." Erec forced a smile. "Just thought I forgot something, but I didn't."

Jack shrugged and walked on, but Jam tapped his shoulder and whispered, "Young sir, I think I know what is going on. You spotted a problem when you looked into the future, didn't you? You've been acting funny ever since. I think you should stay out here and wait for us to bring Bethany back. Would you do that?
Please
, sir."

"No, Jam. Thanks . . . but that won't help anyway." Jam's face dropped. "Hey, Jam. It'll be okay. Really. I'm just a little nervous, that's all."

The butler let the point go. "Yes, sir. Or, I should say, sire. One of these days you'll be a great king, you know."

"Thanks, Jam." Erec did not have the heart to tell Jam that one of these days, very soon, he would be gone forever.

When they turned the corner on Jalan Bangka, Erec spotted a small sign in a neatly manicured lawn that read WINDOWS TO THE SOUL--ONE STOP EYE CARE SHOP. The small building was so quaint and pleasant he couldn't believe it was a portal to a terrifying fortress.

Kyron felt the same way. "Could this be it? It looks too . . ."

"Nice?" Melody said. "This shop is so sweet. Look at the flowers on the windowsills and the painted shutters."

"What I don't understand," Jack said, "is that there is no room for a fortress on this street at all. Do you think it all could be underground?"

"Hey, guys." Erec kept his voice hushed. "Don't forget there's an Identdetector on the door. We need to keep the clerk from seeing who I am, okay? Say my name is . . ."

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"Rick Ross." Jack nodded. "The name worked well before. Might as well use it again."

"Good idea. And also, should we say we're with a traveling circus? I mean, if someone asks. The way we look might make people wonder."

Jam approved. "Good thinking, young sir."

They slowly filed into the shop. Erec checked the door frame as he walked in. A tube ran along the wall surrounding the door, glowing like a faint blue neon light. A small line extended from its side toward what looked like a fax machine. Paper spat onto the back counter each time someone walked through.

Without question, Erec's name was in the stack of papers. If the clerk saw it now, he would never have a chance to try on the glasses and find the hidden door. It would all be a matter of timing.

Which made him think. He could change the future, couldn't he? Maybe he could distract the clerk so that he would never find out who he was. If the clerk didn't know, then he wouldn't call for that awful police-snake thing, and on the way out Erec would never get bitten.

He stood straighter. What a great idea! He just had to be clever. This clerk wasn't expecting him to show up here. If he played his cards right, then he just might save his own life.

Looking around the shop was like déjà vu. The place was exactly as Erec had seen in his vision--except without people running all over. This was it. This was where he would either live or die.

Rows of eyeglasses lined the shelves behind the counter. The shop was decorated with framed needlepoint sayings. "Seeing is believing" and "Sleep with one eye open" were strange enough, but "See yourself through someone else's eyes" and "Go ahead, cry your eyes out" gave Erec the chills.

"May I help you?" The clerk--a man of average height, medium

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brown hair, middling body size, and standard features--could have blended into any crowd. Even alone behind the counter he seemed to fade behind his own glasses into the rows of eyeglass frames behind him. The man glanced toward the stack of papers near the door.

In a quick move to distract him, Erec blurted, "
Hey!
We're all here, visiting in Jakarta. You having a good day here? Seems awful nice outside."

The clerk looked at him quizzically, and his friends stared as if he'd gone crazy. Erec didn't care. If only he could grab those papers away, he just might survive. If Jam had a match, maybe he could burn them.

The clerk smiled patiently. "Are you in need of a checkup? We highly recommend it here. You never know what eye disease you might be carrying."

Kyron pointed in shock at a display case full of eyes, made of glass, all peering out at him. "What are these for?"

"Those are top of the line. Nowadays so many people come down with eye problems that can only be solved by replacements. You would be surprised. Take a look around while I catch up on my paperwork." He moved down the counter toward the stack.

"
No!
I mean, please. I'm ready to try on frames now. Can you show me some?"

"Well." The clerk frowned as if he were deciding. "I usually like to do the exam first. It's quite important, you see. That will help me decide which frames would work best for you." He jiggled the glasses on his face and squinted at Erec. "You look familiar, young man. Have I seen you in here before?"

"N-no. I just have one of those faces." Erec forced a laugh. "People say that to me
all
the time.
Look!
" he shouted as the clerk took another step toward the stack of papers. "I really just came in here to try frames on. My eyes are perfect. I just had them checked."

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"Yes, but where?" The clerk held a finger aloft. "Other eye centers don't have our expertise, our equipment. You wouldn't want to be walking around with harmful glasses, would you?" He took another step toward the papers.

"Okay--okay! Wait! I'll tell you what. If you let me try on frames first, then we'll all get eye exams. We won't let you do it any other way. That's it."

The clerk was very surprised. "You'll all get exams? They are free, of course."

Erec's friends didn't know what he was doing, but they all nodded.

"I better not lose an eye in this deal," Melody murmured in Erec's ear.

The clerk walked back and crossed his arms. "Well, son? Which would you like to see first?"

"Hmm. Jam? What do you think?" He waved for Jam to come closer, then whispered to him, "See if you can steal those papers. Light fire to them. Anything. Just get rid of them." He nodded at the stack by the door.

Jam strolled toward that part of the room while Erec looked at the frames. "Let me see . . ." He closed his eyes and brought his dragon eyes forward. The Hermit had suggested that finding the hidden passage was foolproof, but not dragon-proof. He better be right, Erec thought.

He squinted to hide his glowing green dragon eyes and put a hand over them like a visor, then he surveyed all of the frames again. The whole room appeared green. Lacy white netting, the Substance that carried all the world's magic, hung in the air. The eyeglass frames all looked dull and uniform. Nothing stood out.

Erec began to panic. What if this method didn't work? They would never get into the fortress. But then he saw a glimmer in the

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last pair of glasses in the bottom row on the right. It wasn't really a full sparkle, more like a hint of a thought of a sparkle.

"That one." He bent down. "The last pair on the right." He closed his eyes and let his normal blue eyes return.

"This?" The clerk laughed, picking up a pair of bright red, elongated women's cat eye frames. "You really want to see these?"

Erec shrugged, tried them on--to the great amusement of his friends--and handed them back.

The clerk was annoyed. "If you're all in here for a joke, you can just go now. I have serious work to do."

"No, I'm sorry. It's just--I'm looking for
special
frames, if you know what I mean."

The clerk raised an eyebrow. "Special frames, then? Well . . . all right." He frowned, searching Erec's face. "What is your name? You look very familiar."

"It's Rick. Rick Ross."

Erec closed his eyes, brought his dragon eyes forward again, and squinted to hide them. "Those. Up on top now. Top row, third from the left."

The clerk handed him a pair of nondescript metal frames. Erec put them on, then took them off without even looking at himself in the mirror. "No. You can put these back."

Jam came as close as he could to the papers, but they were lying on the back counter, out of his reach. Something long and gray stretched out of his sleeve, slowly making its way to the counter where the papers sat.
Please
, Erec thought,
please get the papers. Save my life, Jam!

The clerk began to look where Erec was staring, so Erec jumped and shouted to catch his attention. "Look at me! I'm going to get glasses, everyone! Yeah!"

Now everyone was sure Erec had gone off the deep end.

"Wait." The clerk snapped his fingers. "I know where I've seen

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you. It was on a notice, somewhere. I'm sure. Did you win an award through The Corporation?"

"No, that was probably one of my look-alikes."

Erec shut his eyes and twisted them back until his dragon eyes were forward again. A pair of thin wire-rim granny glasses had the sparkle now. "Those, please. Right in the middle. Next to that pair. The tiny ones."

The clerk handed the glasses to Erec with growing interest. "Are you here for a
reason
, boy? I guess I'll know soon enough. Hmm. You do look very familiar."

Jam was stamping on something by the door. With a glance Erec saw a flash of light snuffed out under his feet, and a pile of ash. The papers were gone.

Jam had done it! Now the clerk would not know who he was, and he would not call for that terrible snake thing to come bite him when he left, capturing him forever!

He was free!

Erec shot a huge grin at Jam, who nodded back. A huge weight melted off Erec's shoulders. He felt like he could stand straight for the first time since he had seen into his future.

He swiveled his eyes again and found the final sparkling pair of glasses. "That one." He could hear the confidence in his own voice. "The brown-and-black plastic ones near the end."

"Horn-rimmed tortoise shell? I wouldn't have picked it for you." The clerk handed the frames to him, stroking his chin in thought. "Where have I seen you?" He looked at the back counter and became alarmed. "Where did my papers go?" Confused, the clerk strode to the back desk. "They were right here. I saw them. Did you take them?" He asked Jam accusingly.

Erec slipped the glasses on. He felt a funny tingle on his face. The room grew dark before his eyes, as if a rain cloud had drifted

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into the shop and plopped down to stay. He could not even see his friends through the gray mist.

He could not see, but he could hear quite well. The clerk was shouting, "Who took my papers? You're all going to have to walk in and out of here again. What are you, a bunch of crooks?"

Something bright, almost blinding, glowed when Erec turned around. A door. That was it, he was sure.

"That's
it
!" the clerk shouted. "You
are
crooks!
That's
where I've seen you. I knew it! You're Erec Rex, aren't you? Look, I have a notice right under the counter here, with your picture on it. This is you, all right. I'm calling the police right now, you hear me? That's the law around here. You're highly wanted, you ... villain!"

Erec stumbled toward the glowing doorway, tripping over unknown objects on his way.

"Don't think you can get away from me. I'll have the cops here in no time. You won't get far."

Erec's hand grasped an icy knob and he twisted, yanked.

A freezing black wind blew through the doorway and into the shop, throwing him back. He perched the glasses up on his head, and the room came back into view. A door, made out of a thin part of the back wall, led into a dark hallway.

"Let's go!" He waved for everyone to go inside.

"Wait! Um . . . uh . . . were you invited here?" the clerk asked, confused. Erec's friends poured through the doorway, ignoring him. "Well, you must have been told to come, or you would never have known which glasses to pick. But I'll be watching for you. This is the only way back out, unless Baskania sends you somewhere himself. I'll have police ready, you hear me! I'm not going to let Erec Rex past me, you hear?"

The door slammed shut behind Erec, who was the last to go through, drowning out the clerk's threats.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Lalalalal's Flight

REC WAS GLAD that the hallway was long and dark, so nobody could see his face. He was sure it was twisted in fear, and he could feel his chin trembling.

So, that was it, then. He would die, after all. He had been so sure that Jam had fixed things, that he had been clever enough to change his fate. But the clerk was calling the snakelike police officer this very moment, probably. He would be