I think I did pretty well with my update this time! Or maybe not…Enjoy!

What was he going to do now? Someone was in his room and he knew that he wouldn’t have enough time to get out of the window or the door. Now that he thought of it, he knew that voice. His imagination was playing tricks on him…the result of spending a day with Gemma’s grandmother.

“Gemma, don’t do that! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” Simon strained his eyes to find her in his darkened room. She stepped out of the shadows.

“Well I just wanted to make sure that you were alright after spending a day with Grandmama. Sorry if I bothered you.” She crossed her arms. He sighed.

“Usually there isn’t anyone in my room at this time. I’m not used to people being able to fly through the window!”

“Oh…I had forgotten that most people can’t do that….I’ll just leave you alone now.” Gemma started to walk to the window.

“Do you have to go right now?” Simon grabbed her hand. Some time alone with Gemma would be nice for a change.

“I don’t think that Grandmama will notice, but Tom might come up to check on me. Goodnight Simon.” She pulled away and sat on the windowsill.

“Goodnight Gemma.” He sighed, and then his face lit up. “Maybe I can invite you to dinner again and you can conveniently have another fainting spell?” They both laughed

“I’m surprised that no one has noticed yet. I’ll have to consider a career in the theatre!” She laughed at the thought. “I really have to go now, Simon. Goodnight.” She slipped out of the window before he could respond. He watched her until she was clothed in a shroud of invisibility. Now he could finally sleep. He turned toward his bed and stopped.

There was something forming in the corner of his room. A patch that was darker than the rest of his room. It almost looked like a door. But it couldn’t be…at least that’s what he thought until the door opened. A scream stuck in his throat. Gemma’s door was in his room, but the woman who was stepping out was not Gemma and this door was not a door of light.

He took a step back. Kartik stepped out of the door. Kartik grinned at Simon. Medea smiled her evil smile. Simon shivered. Whatever was coming, he knew it was bad. He pressed himself against a wall, wishing as hard as he could that he could be somewhere else. The woman was the first to speak.

“Hello, I’m Medea. I know who you are. Now, if you would be so kind as to step through this door with me, we won’t have any problems. Understood?” Before Simon could force any part of himself to answer, the door opened once more, and someone else stepped through. Someone who looked extremely annoyed. Medea turned to see who it was. She sighed and rolled her eyes. The man spoke.

“Medea, I thought that I was supposed to do it. What is he doing here?”

“I wasn’t sure if you could handle it.” She shrugged and jerked he thumb at Kartik. “I got him as a backup.”

No one noticed Simon creeping closer and closer to the window.

“I was only a backup?” Kartik looked angry.

“No…Of course you weren’t. You’re as important as anyone of us.” Amazingly enough, Kartik believed her. Absyrtus was fuming because it seemed like his sister didn’t trust him.

Suddenly, Kartik made a leap to the other side of the room. By the time the others looked to see what was happening, Kartik had Simon in a choke hold with a dagger to his throat.

“Where did the dagger come from?” Absyrtus was just a bit confused.

“Unlike some people, I don’t need magic to be fast.” Medea sensed the tension and stepped in.

“Let’s not fight over this. Yes, Kartik, that was fast, but there was no need to be brutish. Let him go.” Fast as lightning, he obeyed her orders. Simon had to lean on the wall to stand up straight; his knees were threatening to buckle. However, Medea was not yet finished giving orders.

“Get him Abby.” Medea ordered. Absyrtus started forward to obey, but stopped.

“Abby?” A confused look passed over Absyrtus’s face. Medea was very, very irritated.

“Just do it!” Now he really was going to obey, but Simon had finally found his voice, though it was a bit shaky.

“You can’t get me! I won’t go with you! You only have the power of illusion!” Medea turned slowly to fix her glare on him.

“You know what Simon? You’re right. We only have the power of illusion. This,” She snapped her fingers. “Is the illusion that you can’t talk.” Simon’s mouth was continually moving, but no sounds were coming out. He slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. His legs had lost their strength. Now the fear could be seen in his eyes.

Medea slowly walked closer, until she was standing right in front of Simon. She crouched in front of him. Once more, she smiled.

“And this,” she snapped her fingers again. “Is the illusion that you are in unbearable pain.” Simon’s screams, though silent, filled the air.

Kartik and Absyrtus stood watching, dumbfounded. They gaped as Medea walked past them.

“Take care of him. Both of you.” Then she was gone. She had disappeared onto the other side of the door of darkness.

Both Kartik and Absyrtus glowered at each other, and then decided to work at the task at hand. Simon, who seemed to be unconscious, was not difficult for them to handle. They picked him up and walked through the door of darkness. It disappeared. No one outside of Simon’s room had heard a thing.

Early the next morning, I awoke. I let my eyes stay closed and reveled in the sunlight coming through my bedroom window. Maybe everything would be okay. I hadn’t heard anything from Felicity; Kartik was off somewhere doing anything he felt like and the strange people from the realms had not come to kill me in my sleep. For me, this was as good as it got.

But now I started to feel that things were going just a bit too well. It was almost as if I felt that something had to go wrong. I tried to shake the feeling, but it wouldn’t go away. However, all my thoughts were lost as I heard my door fly open.

“Gemma!!” Really, was there any need for Grandmama to shout? She was already in my room, I was right there.

“To day is the day! We’re going shopping for your wedding dress…for your marriage to Simon Middleton!” There were so many other things that I would rather be doing. Like reading the dictionary or picking the lint off of my sweater.

“I had almost forgotten! I am so excited! I get to look for my wedding dress today!” I was falsely cheerful and I hoped that grandmama would catch on.

“Do you think that Miss Worthington would like to come with us?” Was she deaf to my sarcasm? Felicity?

“Miss Worthington? She’s…ill.” That was a barely passable lie.

“Then we must go and visit her!” I lived in the same house as Grandmama and she didn’t visit me when I was sick. When it was someone important, though, she would cross the Atlantic to see them if it she had to.

“I’m afraid that we can’t visit her…” Think Gemma, think! “Her doctor said that she is extremely contagious and that no one is allowed to visit.” If she never heard my sarcasm, then surely she would believe that.

“Very well then. I’ll send Alice up to help you to get ready.” With that, she swept out of my room and closed the door behind her.

Okay, so Alice was coming to help me get ready. Grandmama didn’t care about me; she only cared about the connections that my marriage to Simon would bring her. Marriage… I sat at my vanity and stared into the mirror. It was kind of funny, actually. I was getting married.

I was always sure that Pippa would be first, because of her beauty, but then…well, she confined herself to the realms. Then Felicity would be next. She was so assertive that she may have made the marriage proposal, not her suitor. But she was…a bit distracted by her dastardly deeds right now. Ann…well, I didn’t think that she thought that she could get married, which was why I thought that I would be third in line. I was first though…I would be the first…

Abruptly, my eyes focused back on the mirror and I watched as a crease crossed my brow. Who is Alice?!

A knock sounded on my door and it was opened. I turned in my seat to take a good look at the new Emily. She looked to be at least in her thirties, maybe early forties. She was a bit shorter than I was and had dark brown hair. She was slim, but not slight.

“Good morning…Alice is it?”

“It’s not Alice, its Ms. Mildmay to you.” Well she was unusually bold for a maid!

“I trust that you’re finding it pleasant here?”

“As pleasant as can be expected in this house.” She answered in the drawl that seemed to be her usual way of speaking.

“I think I’ll wear my green dress today.” Polite conversation was obviously not going to work between us.

“Very well Miss Doyle.”

I was never going shopping with grandmama again. I was tired and hungry because ‘we have no real need to eat more than twice a day’ according to grandmama. I slowly climbed the stairs to my room. I couldn’t even remember what my dress looked like. I had been a little faint by the time when had reached that store and so everything was a blur from then on. Even though we had just eaten, everything still was. still was.

I couldn’t wait to get to bed. Luckily, Alice, I mean Ms. Mildmay, had left a lamp in my room for me. I opened the door and stumbled into my room. Then my eyes focused on something that brought the world into sudden, sharp clarity. There was a note on my pillow.

It was pinned with a knife.

Author’s Notes: 4th May, 2008

Well here’s another chapter! Exams are coming up and I keep saying that should probably study…but I never seem to get around to it (sigh). In case you hadn’t noticed. It was Kartik that left the note there, like he used to do when she was at Spence!

I just got The Sweet Far Thing! ( I know, its sad. I really just got it.) But I’ve been so wrapped up in Forsaken lately that I keep expecting all of my characters to be there!

Make sure to leave me a nice long review and I’ll send you a telepathic cookie!

Thanks Snickers!

Thanks Roxxi! (Who will soon be updating the typos in this chapter!)

Poor Simon…he got kidnapped. I feel so sad about it! And Medea scares me! Yes, I know that I’m supposed to control them! They still do what they want! No, snickers, I’m not crazy. (At least I don’t think so.)

Remember, leave a review!!