Freiyon Fables: The Rochester Runes

Elsewhere, not too far from the retirement home, the kids’ mother, Mary Rochester; had decided to temporarily stop the unpacking from her old house to visit her grandmother’s place. She was completely oblivious to anything that was going on and all she was concerned about at that moment was trying to see her grandmother again.

But, apparently, some-one had already seen her that day and she had gone back to bed to rest.

As Mary left the retirement home, she couldn’t help but notice a strange ticking noise coming from somewhere in the car.

She stopped along a highway to check it out, but when she found nothing she decided to quickly duck to the toilet and wash her hands from the grease.

In the car boot, where she hadn’t checked, was a clock-bomb set for one minute after Mary had gotten out of the car.

Just as she was opening the door to the toilets, the bomb went off.

The force of the explosion was so powerful that it sent Mary soaring into the toilet and shutting the door after she went through. It was a good thing too, because a sharp, flying car piece embedded into the door, only coming within inches of Mary’s head. She was frozen in utter terror. All she could do was look cross-eyed at the shard that had almost split her head neatly in two. It was only five minutes later when a passing Volkswagen noticed the scene and stopped to see what had happened when Mary finally got out of her solid statue state.

Robert and Charles didn’t know this had happened to their Mum. In fact, they were too busy dealing with the fact the manor was now invaded by walking statues!

“Please tell me I’m dreaming.” Robert said as they looked down at the manor in Robert’s car.

“Two people can’t have the same dream during broad daylight. Ah, hah! Just as I suspected, take a look.” Charles handed Robert his binoculars and pointed towards the drive-way.

“Look who’s patrolling the garage. Recognize him?”

Robert gasped. “The Staring Soldier? So mum’s fears were true after all.”

The soldiers marched through the house, tearing apart every room they could find, while the leader stood on the drive-way staring around for trespassers.

Robert turned to Charles. “What now?”

Charles looked at the front of the house, then at the build of Robert’s car.

Robert knew what Charles was planning and shook his head.

“Uh, uh! No bloody way! There’s no way in HELL! I am not doing that!”

Charles’ grin went wider.

“Who said you had to?”

The Staring soldier heard the car before it came, but it still wasn’t prepared for what it saw. Robert’s car flew over a small jump and plunged towards the manor with no-one at the wheel. Charles had planned it well. He had placed a brick onto the acceleration pedal, tied on with some rope, and then he and Robert had hopped into the back seats and strapped themselves in. The only thing that controlled the car was a small ropes system Charles had set up so that when they crashed into the building, he and Robert wouldn’t be hurt.

“You are absolutely INSANE!” Robert had complained.

But, as Robert unfortunately knew, the grounds were being patrolled and the only way in was by force.

“It’s a good thing the gate was left open.” Charles commented, just to make Robert feel a little better. It hadn’t worked by much.

That had been the last thing he said before he got the car moving.

So now they charged towards the house, straight at the Staring soldier.

The Staring soldier didn’t budge, even though the car was getting faster by the second. At the last possible second, Charles turned the wheel a fraction so that he aimed for the lounge-room. The car crashed through the wall, the boys lurched forward hard, and the car stopped dead.

“Ok, we’re in! Let’s go!” Charles hopped out and helped Robert out.

“You destroyed my car!” Robert exclaimed.

“Just be thankful we weren’t destroyed.”

“You wrecked the manor!”

“You have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette.”

“You smashed the TV!”

“Oh, MAN! It was a wide-screen too!”

Robert pointed up in shock as the soldiers started coming for them.

“Let’s go!” Charles repeated, grabbing the non-living soldier’s foot and pulling it up.

Robert hopped through alone for a few minutes and then was joined by Charles as the tunnel door swung closed behind them.

Robert looked at Charles, angrily.

“When this is over, you are SO dead, Charley.”

But before long Robert was soon complaining to Charles, as his leg was still struggling to heal, and he became grouchy towards Charles.

“I don’t GET it! Why are we running down this tunnel when our great-grandmother told us to keep away from danger? Isn’t this just leading straight to it?” Robert asked, as they struggled through the dark tunnel back to the mirror-door.

“Where are we meant to go? We have no idea if mum is still at the old house, and even if she is she could be in serious danger too! Everyone in our family is in danger! We have to do something!”

Robert was about to reply when they both heard the sickening crash of the fireplace door smashing apart.

“Oh, great! Where’s the end of the tunnel, Charles? They’ve gotten in!”

Charles flung his torch out of his back-pack and turned it on. “Voila! Our mirror-door! Right, let’s get through and find Sarah!”

Charles moved extremely fast to get the mirror-door open again.

The two of them experienced the portal pulling feeling, and as soon as Robert hopped through, he felt a powerful gust of wind come from behind them.

Without warning, something smashed into the left wall where the boys had been a moment ago and they turned back to see what it was that had caused the smash.

The soldiers were charging through the tunnel, shooting steel arrows at the boys.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Charles grabbed Robert and they ran for the bridge, after properly exiting the ‘portal’.

Robert accidentally tripped on a rock and rolled down to the bridge, shouting in pain every time he bounced.