The Time Capsule

Chapter 3: The Mystery of the Blue Carbunkle

Chapter 3: The Mystery of the Blue Carbunkle

A young boy from the year below Angelica and Jillian was out for an evening walk, the stars flickering above him. The lit streetlights told him it was time to return home soon. A flutter of dark wings suddenly crossed overhead. Wondering what it could be, he glanced around him to find a deserted street, with the cry of a fox echoing. He stepped off the path and found his heart beating in his chest with fear coursing through his lungs. Why was he looking for a place to hide. Had he seen these creatures before? And how did he know they were creatures? 

His short brown hair became askew around his face, his clothes becoming ripped and torn from the bramble and tree twigs. The shadows crept overhead again, and the boy's scream echoed through the woods as his shirt was torn open by a violent, large claw. The boy struggled from the huge creature's grip as the claws tighened around his shirt, picking the boy up from the ground and taking off into the night sky. Grayson Smith struggled with every ounce of him to drop to the ground, but it proved more difficult by each moment passing, as he got higher and higher. Figuring out pretty quickly that he would not see Shadowstream again any time soon, he managed to rip off one of his shoes, a blue pair, and tossed one of them to the ground. He heard a light 'thunk' as he submitted to the creature's powerful grip, the wings taking flight amongst the pale moonlight. 

This was the day Grayson Smith disappeared, a young boy with seemingly no significance, but who left behind the most important clue of all. Newspapers swirled into town and reporters arrived by the dozen to solve the case of the missing boy. It made Shadowstream a buzz of activity as they followed Angelica home, to which she aimed a good kick at one hiding in her bushes, and a particularly interested reporter that followed her to school- even in an extremely embarrassing incident- hiding behind the bathroom door. This was stopped when Mrs. Curie gave them a very stern talking to, and no one wants a French woman upset with them in any possible way. 

Angelica had been having a rough time ever since Mrs. Sparrow ended up in the hospital. She never knew each day if her mother would wake up at all, or what would become of her injuries. It made it that much harder to concentrate in classes- but the teachers were becoming more strict on her than ever. They decided after the Mr. Danforth incident that they did not owe Angelica any more sympathy than she was already getting. But things were starting to heat up between her and a certain Levi Coven. 

Pretending she was going to class, she snuck out the back way and careened into Levi one day, ruining his latest card trick. The deck scattered over the floor and she called a hasty apology over her shoulder. Not exactly the best start to getting him to notice her. From what she had heard of Levi, however, she had just saved a 7th year a few dollars from his latest crappy card trick. He always kept at least one deck of cards in his leather jacket, but from experience, Angelica knew you wouldn't be able to do the trick once you got home. Levi liked to call it a black magic market with live demonstrations- Angelica liked to call it a cheap crack house for school. Angelica, Jillian and Levi were 9th graders, having just gotten to their final year after grueling year 8 exams, which for some reason, Jillian and Levi were both missing from, but managed to pass anyway. She still had to confront Jillian about this, but there were more important things at the moment. From the reporters, the disappearance, her mother and avoiding Levi, it had all become too much for Angelica and Jillian had become her personal punching bag. 

"This is horrible," Angelica closed up a newspaper and threw it to the floor.

She paced the familiar wood boards of her tree house that her father had built for her when she was five years old. It had become the one thing her mother had torn down in her paranoia after the disappearance of her father. Pictures of famous pirates she admired hung from the walls, rather than a usual teenage girls set up of celebrities. They were all cut outs from unusual magazines Angelica found on the internet, except for her pride and joy, the Angelica Sparrow poster signed by the actress that she won in a contest when she was 4 years old- and her father was still around. In fact, he handed the prize to her for the best pirate costume.