Sure Signs of Courage: Part 2

  Hannah Thomas

15 years after Sophie got captured by Shadow Man…..

This was the mast normal that a normal day could get. Or at least that is how it started anyway. I sat on the bus with my friend Aliva, I had the regular schedule, and I rode the bus home. 

But when I opened the front door to my family’s house, something seemed... unusual. 

“Mom? Dad? ” I call out, hoping that someone will answer.

“Hannah is that you?!” my mom calls out. 

I rush upstairs to her room and look around. All of her stuff is turned on its side, like someone had been looking for something…. Or someone. 

“Yes Mom it’s me, Hannah. Where are you?” I ask her.

“In the closet” she replies. 

I open the closet door, and there is my Mom huddled in the corner, eyes wide.

“What happened Mom? Where is everyone?” I wonder out loud. 

“How do I tell you this? Ummm…” her voice trails off as if she can’t find any way to say something to me. 

“You can just tell me there's nothing that you need to hide from me. Unless you don’t want to tell me. I answer back. 

“I guess that’s it about time that you know” she says with a sigh. “My past is not what it seems. I have had countless times where my life has been at stake, where I've been captured, and countless truly countless times where I have had adventures.” 

“Uhh what does this have to do with this situation?” I say wondering. 

“The point is one of my old enemies is back. And all they want is to get their hands on our family treasure….. My necklace that gives you superpowers. But it's going to be a loooong journey. So, well follow me.” She says jumping up from her hiding spot. 

“Wait! Can’t we at least bring my friends?” I ask.

“Why not!” is mom's response. 

          

           Mike Thickel

“Ding dong” rings the doorbell. 

“I’ll get it!” I called my mom. 

I open the door, thinking that it was just a person delivering a package but when I look to see who it is, I see my friend Hannah and her mom. 

I hear footsteps behind me and my mom exclaims:

“Sophie! How long has it been since I've seen you? Like 5 years?” 

“No relax Tiffany, it’s been only one year since we've seen each other.” she says, with respect. 

“Why are you here? We promised that we would only see each other if it was an emergency…..” her voice trails off. 

“Yes! It is an emergency! Ok where are the plans for if he returns?” Hannah’s mom continues. 

“Who in the world are they talking about?” I ask myself, confused. 

Just after I ask myself that, Hannah rushes over to me.

.“Uhhh Mike I really need to tell you something”

“Ok let's go to the dining room to talk it over, ok?” I whisper back. 

We sneak away from our grandparents who are too deep in conversation to notice. 

  

Hannah Thomas

We go into the second most frivet room in the house. 

“Well this is awkward right?” I say uncomfortably but sorta happy. Let me tell you about me and Mick's history. 

We go way back when there wasn’t a cre in the world what we did.like basically babies because his mom and my mom have been best friends FOREVER!! I mean like when grandma Sophie and Aunt Tiffany had them!! 

So we've been best friends forever and as we got older it got kinda awkward you know?

So we umm we kinda sorta started dating without telling our parents? So yeah because they would NOT approve if we told them. So yes it was kinda awkward to be with him in the second most PRIVATE room in the house! You know? 

“So umm.. How have you been in the past umm how long has it been? A month? Wow!”he says breaking the silence. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we haven't really talked recently… he said he wanted to take a break. Which is weird because we've been together for like almost a year i think? Yeah so now we go back to the silents again.

   “Ummm yeah so why did you call that break anyway? I mean we’ve been together for almost a year! Why now?” I ask.again back to the siclents.

“My parents had a suspicion that I and you were dating. I had to. I'm so sorry!” he says finally. Then he takes my hand and kisses me lightly on the lips.  

            

  Mike Thickel

After we kissed for a total of 15 seconds. Hannah pulls away from me and shakes a little like she's shaking off a harmless bug.

“I should tell you about this whole magic thing.” she says thoughtfully

“Wait what magic! When did magic come up! We just kissed and now there's magic involved in life?! What the heck!”i say , completely forgetting about not letting our parents know that we were dating.

“Wait what do you mean you just kissed?! Wow!” me and Hannah look around in bewilderment. And when we see Grandma Tiffany and Aunt Sophie smiling at us they both laugh. I turn to Hannah and she shrugs.

“Please dont tell our dads!”Hannah pleads

“Oh we were going to have to SAVE your dad if we were going to tell. Which we won't fyi.”aunt sophie says

“Oh Sophie you sound like you're 16 again!” Mom laughs. 

“Oh really? Well you look like 130!”Hannah's Mom says back. Again me and Hannah slip away to my room. Literally the most private room in the house.

“Ok now I have to tell you about the magic thing…”she says looking up at me and looking stressed and scared.

   “Your ok Hannah you can tell me about anything.” I say calmly to her.

   “Your right I should tell you because my dad is in a giant cage and maybe being tortured and mabe already DEAD. Dead Mike DEAD!!!”Hannah cried. 

She was starting to have a panic attack so I pulled her in closer and hugged her fiercely.

Her breathing went down slightly but not enough for her to be ok. “Shhhhh. You're ok. We can talk about this later if you want.”i say, while i still have my arms around her. 

   “Yeah lets do that. Please”she says, still shaking “oh and also my Mom can teleport if she feels like it.” I blink down at her in surprise. 

“Umm ok then… let's go save our parents!!Well your Dad” I say and Hannah starts texting her friend Aliva Johnson to tell her the news.

 Aliva Johnson

As soon as I got the text that my friends' family members were in danger and that Hannah, Mike and me were meeting at the library in 15 min, I rushed to the door and started to walk /run to the library. 

When I get there, Hannah and Mike are sitting in bean bag chairs in the corner of the library. Of course there's an empty bean bag chair for me.

“So what's this all about?”I ask, trying my best to pretend to be surprised. Hannah and Mike glance at each other.

“Sit down so we can explain” they tell me. 

So I sit down in the beanbag chair next to Hannah, and they start to explain what they know about the mysterious villain. 

After they finish explaining, all I can say is “Wow”(Well my pretend “wow”). 

“Yeah I can’t believe this myself” Hannah tells me, falling for my acting

“Neither can I!” Exclaims Mike. 

“Shhh” the librarian reminds us. 

“Well while we’re here, I am going to check out the history section to see if there's anything important there.” I whisper to Hannah and Mike. 

I head off the go take a good look at the books, and I don't seem to find anything important until I reach the S section in the history part of the library. 

At first I only saw boring books on a bunch of small events. Then I see a book entitled “Sophie and the 8th grade drama”

 Then there are five more books that I decide to check out too. They all have the name “Sophie” in the title, so I know that they should be related. 

 

I am just about about to check out the books when someone taps me on my shoulder. I expected it to be Mike or Hannah, but instead a tall boy is standing behind me. 

“Uh hi?” I say nervously. 

“Give me those books. NOW!” he demands. 

“No, I am just getting these books for ME!.” I snap back. 

“Shhh” The librarian says. 

“Oh you’ll regret messing with me!” He shouts. 

Before I can say or do anything., his hand cups over my mouth and he picks me up like I weigh nothing. 

               Hannah Thomas 

We decided to go back to Mike’s house, and we went up to his room. That was when we noticed that something was wrong. 

“Uhhh Mike? Something feels a little..,... off.” I tell him. 

“I don’t know what it is but it sure does seem like we're missing something.”

We just sat there in silence and then I realized what we were missing. 

“Uhh where is Alivia?” I ask. 

“Oh no we forgot her at the library!” Mike shouts. 

“Let's go back and find her” I suggest, trying to act calm. 

“Ok” Mike replies. 

We walk to the library and we notice a strange looking car that is painted bright orange. There is someone in the back of it but we can't see who it is. We get closer and realize that the person is Alivia!

We are just about to go and help her when a tall boy comes and hops in the passenger seat of the car and someone drives them away! 

“We need to go after them!” I whisper to Mike.

“But how?” he asks me. “We can’t drive a car” 

“I can drive a golf cart!” I suggest. “And look there is one” 

“Ok but if you get in trouble, don’t blame me.” He says with a sigh. 

We hop into the golf cart and I back out of the parking spot, and chase wildly after the strange looking car. 

Eventually, the car stops at a place that looks like an abandoned store. 

We peer through the blinds and watch. 

“Where is that Hannah girl that you promised me! This is Lizz’s child! Not Sophie's!” Says a tall man. 

“I know but I thought she might be useful too. She and Hannah are friends….. Well at least that's what Hannah thinks. ” Says the tall boy who kidnapped Alivia. 

Me and Mike exchange a nervous glance. 

“You make a good point. Maybe she can lead us to her!” the man cackles. 

“Dad I am not so sure that we might succeed. All of your past attempts-” the boy starts.

“Fred, I know this will work. This is even better than my last plan!” The tall man yells. 

“We need help. We can’t defeat them by ourselves. You stay here and use your cell phone if you are found. Ok?” I whisper to Mike. 

“Ok but try to be back as soon as possible.” he replies. 

“I will try my best. Well I better hurry. Bye” I say to him. 

“Bye” he whispers. “And be safe” 

“I will.” 

     

       Mike Thickle 

After Hannah left, I just stood behind a trash can and watched the tall man and Fred talk about their small evil plans….. Or at least I thought that they were small evil plans. 

That's at least what I thought until…..

“When will our species finally realize that we are capable of doing much more than some silly humans can!” the tall man bellows to darkness. 

Then I realized that Alivia was standing there…..

Questions of all kinds mobbed my head, until I processed the words that the man had said. 

“Other species? Silly humans? Doing much more?” I mumble to myself, confused. “This can only mean…. No it can't be! No way they are aliens……” 

That's when what was happening finally settled….. That's also when I knocked over a trash can. 

“What was that!” the tall man bellows, surprised. 

I stumble back trying to get out of his sight, but he sees me moving. 

“Over there!” Fred shouts, pointing to me.

The tall man bursts out of the abandoned building, and scoops me up. I try to scream but before I can, the man stuffs a cloth towards my nose. 

 Then, the sweet smell of sedatives burns my throat. 

The world fades into black, and my consciousness dissolves. 

     Alivia Johnson 

This plan is working! Me, shadow man, and fred are actually going to pull this off! 

All we need now is to lure Hannah into here and we will finally know the location of the ancient superhero necklace! 

Mike is useless and too non helpful for us to spare him his life. If he’s lucky he will only have a few deep cuts in his skin.

But right now he is unconscious so he is definitely unhelpful in this situation. But enough about Mike. 

Hannah is who us aliens want. When she realizes her full potential, she will join us and her life will be spared. I can't say the same for the rest of the humans though….. 

Oh no! Mike is waking up! 

“Shadow Man! Get rid of this disturbance!” I holler, pointing to Mike, who is starting to stir. 

“Ok yes right away Ms. Alivia” he replies, rushing to Mike and stuffing another sedated cloth under his nose. 

Mike’s eyes close again, and we're back on schedule. 

We must find a way to get rid of the boy before Hannah can rescue him. Maybe we could seditate her too! Now that's what i'm talking about!

       After 5 min…

Hannah apratches two figures behind her. They appear to be Mike's mother and Hannah's mom, racing towards our hideout. 

They all dont have ANY weapons, so this will be a piece of cake. 

When they peer through the window, they expect to see shadow man. But when they notice me not tied up, they stop and stare. 

              Hannah Thomas

As soon as I spot Alivia, a mountain of questions forms in my head. But I first blurted out; “Where's mike!” 

“He’s in there!” Alivia says in an upset tone of voice. “Shadow man’s got him!” 

We all rushed inside, only to find that a cage dropped on me! Before anyone could say “captives” me and my family were trapped! 

“Hannah, when you escape, go to the castle on-” her directions are muffled out by a cloth stuffed under her nose. Before anyone can say or do anything, her eyes close and her breathing steadies. 

Alivia and the tall man do the same thing to Tiffany, and then they head over to me.

“You know what, let's teach you a lesson for always being nice! Sometimes it's best to unleash a little evil…..”

And with that they snap their fingers, a red mist coats my eyes, and my happy, normal life gets farther and farther away from me.

      

          Mike Thickle

“Hannah no! Dont leave please!” I holler out. But it's too late. She runs off into the sunset with some other person.

My sadness snaps me back into reality just in time to see the real Hannah stepping towards me. 

“Hannah!” I shout lunging towards her. The rope that’s tying me to a chair snaps and a topple onto her. 

“Get off me!” Hannah scowls. 

“Sorry what’s wrong?” I ask her, confused at her sudden anger. 

Then I notice the blood red mist coating her eyes…….An awkward silence follows until Hannah finally speaks up. 

“Alivia I command you to take him downstairs,” She says. But it was the last three words that stole my breath; “To be tortured” 

Then Alivia scoops me up, and carry’s me down the dark stairs into a room with huge machines. 

She lays me down on a huge machine and tells me: “Say bye bye to your happy life” 

Then, she closed the little door to the machine and a huge cloud of purple mist seeps into my skin and swallows my conciseness…….

A dreamy sunset fills my eyes, Hannah is by my side, telling me that everything was going to be ok. She pulls me into a hug, and we stare at the sunset…… 

I wake up in the machine again, with a shadow looking over me. Wait a shadow cant look. It must just be because someone is standing on the other side of the room. 

But soon enough, the shadow morphs into a tall man. 

“How did you-” I start but my words turn into a cough.

“I wouldn’t talk if i were you” is the tall man’s gruff response. 

He’s probably right, because now my throat feels hoarse. I wonder what Alivia meant by “say bye bye to your happy life”........

I try to get out of the machine by putting my fingers in between the openings of the machine and trying to pry it open. It doesn’t work. And by the third time, my hands are aching. 

I stop trying to get out of the machine because I realize that there is no point in trying to. 

My throat feels slightly better so I open my mouth to say something, but before I can, the machine table pulls me into the next chamber of the machine.

This time, instead of purple mist, a black mist seeps into my skin. As soon as it does, a sharp pain flows through my body. 

I start to scream, but it turns into horrible coughing. The black mist continues to seep into my skin, and everytime it does, a sharper pain spreads through my body. 

When the process is finally finished, my whole body aches all over. 

“Now get ready for what weve been preparing you for, the torture!” Alivia and the tall man yell with excitement. 

          

       Alivia Johnson

I go to the control panel of the machine that I put Mike in, and tell it to start torturing him in about 5 min. In the meantime, let's hope that Mike does not find a way out. 

We proceed to get the machine ready, and when the five minute timer beeps, we're ready.

We press the buttons and Mike is wooshed into the next machine compartment. 

“I can't feel my feet- well i actually can't feel anything.” Mike says, but then his words turn into a fit of coughs. 

“I told you not to talk!” Shadow Man bellows (he told me his nickname earlier). 

Then, at that very moment, the gears in the machine start to whirr and buzz. 

Mike’s eyes start to look fear filled, but I don't care. 

But then, something goes wrong. The machine's gears start to come up and out of the bottom of the machine, getting closer and closer to Mike! 

When the gears reach him, all we hear at first is a little blade cutting into skin. But then all the blades get closer and closer.

 It’s a good thing that Mike is lying face up, or else he would get some serious heart damage. 

Then all the gears reach him, and by then, his eyes are already filled with tears. 

“Why are you so upset? You wish that you had Hannah with you?” I say to him, teasing. 

He mumbles a word that I don't understand, and then starts to cry really loudly. 

“I guess that you need Hannah to tell you that you're brave. Let me get her so she can give you “encouragement”.” I say sarcastically.

I walk up the stairs, and see Hannah untying Her mom and Mike's mom. 

“Hey why aren't you evil?” I ask her. Then I remembered. “Oh right, the mist only works for 10 min, and then i half to do it again.”

“Where’s Mike!” Hannah demands. “And actually give me a correct answer this time.”

“Ok if you're forcing me, he’s downstairs.” I tell her.

And with that, she rushes down the stairs to go get Mike. 

I start to head towards Hannah and Mike’s moms but then Hannah’s mom grabs Mikes moms hand, and with a flash of light, they're gone. 

“Uhh was it just me or did they teleport?” I wonder out loud. 

“Yep they did!” says a voice behind me. 

I turn around and see Hannah carrying a bloody Mike.

B

Then, with a flash of light, they were gone too! 

“How could this day get any weirder.” I ask myself.

        

          Hannah Thomas

Me and Mike landed in some white room with portals all around us.

 I look down at the ground, but there is no ground! I look up, but there's no sky! Oh no! We're trapped in a portal room! Ughhh how could this day get any worse. 

I decided that the best thing to do was wake up Mike and then we'll go from there. So I start to try to move him around and see if he will wake up. All that moving him around did was make him lose even more blood. 

So I decided to get my bandaids in my just in case bag of heath supplies. I badige him up, and within 10 min, he is awake. 

“Hannah?” he says weakly. 

“Mike!” I shout, leaping on top of him. 

“Where are we?” he asks, sitting up. 

“Ummm I tried to teleport us back to your house but now we are stuck in this portal room.” I explain.

“What's a portal room?” he asks me. 

“Umm it's hard to explain, but what's important is that we need to escape. But i don't know how.” I tell him, sadly. 

“Oh,” Mike says, slightly surprised. 

“Wait! Look over there, see that portal that has your house in it?” I ask him, pointing. 

“Yes I see it” he replies. 

“Ok we're going to jump into it on 3. 1,2,3!” I tell him. 

We jump in and land in the yard.

We see my mom and Mike's mom setting up the halloween decorations for tonight. 

“Hi mom!” I shout, running towards my mother. 

“Hi Hannah! What took you two so long?” my mom asks us. 

“Oh we got trapped in a portal room. But now we're fine” Mike says. 

“Oh good” Mike’s mom says. 

“I nearly forgot that it's halloween tonight!” I say. “What time is it?” 

“The time is 6:15” My mom answers.

“Oh well I better walk home and get my costume on. Mike and I have costumes that go together. 

And with that I started to walk home. 

          

            Mike Thickle 

I decide to go inside too and get my costume on. I'm going to be a sheep and Hannah will be the sheep hearder. 

After I get my sheep costume on (which is really just a white shirt and white pants with cotton balls glued onto it), I wait outside for Hannah to show up. 

After 15 min of waiting I decided to invite my friends Max and Daniel over. I get on my backup costume (it's a dog costume), and try to call Hannah. 

“Hello you have reached the automatic voice messaging system 700-354-880 is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you're finished recording, press 1 for more options.” My phone announces. “Beep” 

“Hey Hannah, it's me, Mike. Call me back as soon as you can. Bye.” I tell the phone, and then hang up. 

When my friends get here, I am relieved to have sometime to get away from life's troubles. And hopefully when I get home, I will have an answer from Hannah. 

         

          Hannah Thomas 

I was just about to get my costume on and go to Mike’s house, when a floating orb comes into my room. 

“What are you?” I ask the orb floating in front of me. 

“Just follow me!” It says and starts to float away. 

I start to chase after it across roads, train tracks, and through forests. It leads me into the heart of a forest and tells me to teleport. 

“Ok but this better work” 

I close my eyes and in a flash of light, I'm near a huge castle. I open the door and walk in. 

 I knock over a trash can, and I see someone turn around. 

“Uh hi?” he says staring at me. 

I stare at him for a moment and then remember him. 

“Hi Scout! Remember me, Hannah? We used to be friends!” I tell him. 

“Wait is this really you?” he asks me in wonder. 

“Yes but we aren't really safe out here.” I tell him. 

I shove him into one of the castle rooms. I follow behind him, but after I take a good look around the room, I realize where we are. 

“No it can't be! No way this is the exact same place!” I whisper under my breath. 

“What is it Hannah?” Scout asks me.

“This was the exact same castle that my mom was in many years ago!” I tell him. “Let me explain”

So I tell him about all the things that happened to my mom and me. 

When I'm finished he tells me that I must be tough for going through all of that. 

I tell him that I am just trying my best. 

“Well I better get back to the cabin” Scout tells me. 

“Bye, Scout” I say. “If you need anything just come down here.”

“I will,” he hollers back. 

I watch him leave, and feel pretty good about staying here. 

          

                Mike Thickle

I just got home from trick or treating when my phone rings. It's Hannah. I answer it and say: 

“Hi Hannah, Whats up?” I ask her. 

“Oh nothing, just saw that I missed your call.” she tells me. 

“Where are you?” I question. 

She looks around, then squints at the darkness. 

“Hhhhe ffffound me” she stutters

“Who? Shadow Man?” I ask her, breathing heavily. 

“Yes! Help me Mike!” She screams as Shadow Man scoops her up. 

The phone slips away from her hand, drops to the floor, and the FaceTime call ends. 

I've got to find where she is!

          

              Hannah Thomas 

The next few hours were a blur. We got thrown in a cage with some other guy named Cester, ate dinner in Shadow Man's secret lair, and fell asleep.

But the sleep never seemed to end. Dark obliviation surrounds me. A calm breeze drifts past me, and a choir of chirping birds fills my ears. The same cycle over and over and over again. I don't understand it.

 But on the 25th time (yes I was counting) A new sound is added to the mix. It seems to be calling to me as if I needed to follow it into the darker obliviation.

Every time I hear it, it seems to be stabbing me in the heart. Each time it's louder and the pain increases. I keep trying to fight it off, but it always comes back stronger. 

By then, id lost count, but somewhere in the midst of all of this, tiny voices started to chant; “Do it! do it! do it!”

I continue trying to push them away, but they keep getting more high pitched, shaking my ear drums to death (if eardrums can have death). 

I look around once more, and notice fires spreading all around me. They almost consume me, when someone puts it out. Not with a fire extinguisher, but with their HANDS!

I take a good look at their face, and realize: “It's Scout!?” 

            

           Mike Thickle 

I can't find Hannah. No matter how far or high I look, I can't find her. Then, when I was about to give up, I spotted a small cabin. 

I knock on the door, and a man answers it. 

“Is Hannah here?” I ask him. 

“Yes she is, come on in.” the man says. 

I step into the room where Hannah and two other boys are. Hannah spots me, she races towards me. 

“I thought that I would never see you again!” I tell her, though I thought I would see her again. 

Hannah lunges towards me, and then we kiss. I forgot how good it made me feel. 

“I've missed you so much Mike!” she says in her dreamy voice of hers. 

Then one of the boys’s in the room speaks up. 

“Enough with the mushy stuff. Let's get down to business. Hannah, Mike you guys work together to figure out why Hannah was flailing earlier. You will work here. I and Chester will work together to find out where Shadow Man is. We will work in the kitchen.” 

And with that, they walk off to the kitchen.