Chapter 4

Raven Returns From The Dead

The rest of the day was interesting, to say the least. Spindler and Raven continued to search for possible crystal locations. I spent more time with Theodore, who I discovered was relatively nice when he wasn't talking about the teddy bear apocalypse.

Late at night, I heard Theodore singing in a pathetically out-of-tune voice:

We're going down, down in an earlier round

And sugar, we're going down, swinging

I'll be your number one with a...

"Give me back my iPod!" I exclaimed. Theodore continued singing. "Theodore!" I shouted. "Give me back my iPod!"

"Here," Theodore said as he returned my iPod.

"Sorry about that," Spindler said as he walked in the room. "Theodore enjoys playing with shiny things, and your device was shinier than anything else in the house."

Suddenly, I heard sobbing. "I should go check that out," I said. I followed the sound until I reached Raven's room. "Is that you, Raven?" I asked.

"Go away, Avery," Raven said.

"Not until I know what's wrong," I said.

"Everything's wrong, Avery. Can't you see that? But that's nothing new. Go away."

I opened the door to see Raven but she looked different somehow. And it wasn't just that she wasn't wearing the usual all-black makeup. Her normally pale skin was even paler than usual. It was as if all of the color had been drained out of her. Despite it being late, she seemed far more alert than she was during any other time of day. She held a small bottle of pills in her hand.

"What are those for?" I asked.

"Dietary supplements," she said. "Didn't I tell you not to come in here?"

"Yeah, but I was worried about you. Are you alright?"

"Alright?" Raven shouted. "Do I look alright? But there's nothing you can do about it. So go away."

"Fine, Raven," I said. What was wrong with Raven? I thought. I couldn't bear seeing her as a living corpse. It just wasn't right. Then again, ever since the incident in the library, nothing had really been right. Still, I had to tell someone.

I decided to talk to Theodore. Even if he was a little crazy, I knew I could trust Theodore. And if it wasn't for his attractiveness, I would be terrified of Spindler. He has a sort of power that scares me a little bit.

"Theodore!" I shouted. "Come here!"

"I'm perfecting my weapon!" he exclaimed.

"This is important!"

"What is it?" Theodore asked as he entered the room. "This better be more important than my weapon. If I don't finish it, the teddy bear invasion could be delayed by several years."

"It's about Raven. She's been acting weird."

Theodore adjusted his monocle. "Typical Raven."

"It's worse than usual. I saw her last night and she looked horrible. Not to mention she had these pills."

"This isn't worth my time," Theodore said. "That's totally normal."

"Wait! Theodore!" I exclaimed. But Theodore didn't come back. So much for trying to get help from Theodore.

At least I had a Plan B. I knew I could get the truth out of Spindler. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to. Also, it was pretty awkward talking to him about these sort of things. I was trying too hard to get him to notice me to listen to what he was actually saying.

I ignored this and approached Spindler.