Story: Alexandra Mellows Out (chapter 4)

Authors: jsyxx

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Chapter 4

[Author's notes:

Disclaimer:  I do not own Josie and the Pussycats. They belong to their respective owners. I did not profit from this writing in any way.

Author’s Notes:  Corrected one grammatical error and one typo in Chapter 3.  I also standardized how I hyphenated certain things in Chapters 2 and 3.  If you read, please review.  Enjoy!

]

Josie and the Pussycats

Alexandra Mellows Out

Chapter 4

Finally, consciousness drifted back to the furry black tuxedo cat named Sebastian, and he slowly opened his big yellow eyes.  It took him a moment to again realize where he was.  Once he had, though, Sebastian stood up on his four paws.  It was a bit difficult for him to stand up straight.  It was especially hard due to the sharp thumping pain that emanated from his head.  However, he was on a mission now.  His beloved master was in danger, and he had to do something about it.  That gave him strength.

He turned his head and again saw the fair blonde beauty, Melody, slumbering as she was bathed in pale moonlight.  She was still uttering gibberish from her lips, something about badgers and tuna casserole.  Sebastian immediately walked over to her round cute face and started licking all over it with his little pink tongue.

It took a while, but, finally, Sebastian’s licking began to rouse her.  “Oh, Alexandra, how forward of you!” she squealed with delight.  Without opening her eyes, she then grabbed a hold of Sebastian’s head, pulled him against her mouth, and gave him a big long juicy kiss.

The kiss, however, felt strange to Melody due to Sebastian’s whiskers and fur rubbing up against her lips.  Finally, she ended the kiss.  “Alexandra, since when did you grow a moustache?”

“Meow!”  Sebastian retorted.

Finally, Melody opened her eyes and saw the dark outline of the cat in the moon light.  “Oh, you’re not Alexandra.  You’re Sebastian!”

The cat rolled his eyes.  “Meow.”

“Were you trying to seduce me, you naughty cat?”

Sebastian shook his head from side to side, quite embarrassed.  He then pointed over to the empty sleeping bag beside her with his paw.

“Oh, Alexandra is missing.”

Sebastian shook his head up and down rapidly.

“Maybe she went to go take a pee.  I hope she can find toilet paper out here.”

Sebastian shook his head no several times fast.  He then went over to Alexandra’s sleeping bag.  He got into the opening of the bag and stood up on two paws.  He then placed part of the bag over his head like it was a hood and more of the bag around his body like it was a robe.  He then extended his furry claw from the makeshift robe and uttered a creepy sounding yowl.

“Oh, you’re the drew-head!”

Sebastian shook his head up and down.

“So you’re saying Alexandra went to go take a pee, and then she ran into the drew-head, and then they went back to the Starship Enterprise?  Golly, I sure hope they have fun!”

Sebastian slapped one of his paws against his face in frustration.  He then pulled down his makeshift hood, grabbed one of his pointy ears, and began to wiggle it back and forth.  Melody quickly got the message and grabbed onto one of her own ear lobes.  She could feel it vibrating, an ominous sign of some dangerous threat looming ahead.  “Oh no, Alexandra is in danger!”

Melody hopped up and ran over to Josie, who was slumbering in her sleeping bag near the fire.  She then reached down, gripped onto Josie’s shoulders, and shook her a bit.  Eventually, Josie was lulled out of sleep.  “Wha… wha, Melody?” she asked as she lifted her head up, sounding and looking very groggy.

“Alexandra went to go potty, and then she met the drew-head, and then they were beamed up into space, but now there’s danger!”

“You just had another dream, Melody.  Just go back to sleep,” she said, laying her head back down and closing her eyes.

Melody immediately grabbed back onto Josie’s shoulders, pulled her back up, and started shaking her for dear life.  “Alexandra is in danger! Wake up!  Wake up!  Wake up!  Wake up!”

Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Josie’s bobbing head screamed as she was violently jerked back and forth.  “Pleeeeeeeease stoooooop shaaaaaaaakiiiiing meeeeeee!” she cried as she was swung back and forth like a yo-yo.

Finally, Melody stopped.  Josie, after regaining her equilibrium, got up and helped rouse the rest of the youths out of sleep.  Melody tried to explain to them what had transpired.  That resulted in everyone becoming extremely confused.  However, Sebastian then stepped in to explain what had happened with more of his brand of feline charades.  Somehow, his explanation was much more clear and comprehendible.

“Thanks for that detailed and thorough explanation, Sebastian,” Alan said to the cat.

“Meow!” he said back.

“I told you guys!  I told you!” Alexander whined.  “We should’ve gone back to the hotel!  I just knew something like this would happen!  I just knew it, and now my poor dear sister has been abducted by some hooded lunatic!”

“Well, there’s only one thing we can do now,” Valerie said.  “We have to go look for her.”

“Great idea!”  Alexander said.  “You do that, and I’ll go get help back in America.  I’ll call you when I get off the plane.”  He then tried to run back towards the van, but Alan again grabbed the collar of his shirt, forcing him to run in place until he gave up trying to get away.

“Aren’t you worried about your sister?” Josie asked him.

“Of course I am, but one of us has to live to pass on the Cabot name.  We’re a very important family!”  Josie rolled her eyes.

Alan let go of his collar.  “Don’t worry, you’re going to live, but you’re also going to help us find Alexandra,” Alan told him.

“I rue the day I hired you,” Alexander muttered.

“So how are we going to find Alexandra way up in outer space?” Melody asked.  “Is Valerie going to make us a space ship?”

“Well, I don’t think they went to space, Melody,” Valerie told her.  “In all likelihood, they’re still somewhere in the forest.  However, that ray gun of yours has given me an idea.”  She went to the van, opened the door, and switched on the ceiling light.  She then went to retrieve the gun-like device from the spot she had placed it in the back seat.  However, she was surprised to find it missing.

“You can’t find it?” Josie asked her.

“No.  I put it right there before I went to bed.  Maybe our druid friend took it back before he made off with Alexandra.  Guess I was foolish to not lock the door.”

“Do you need it to find her?” Alan asked.

“Nope.  It did give me a great idea though.  That supposed laser gun is really a sensor of some kind.  I think it keys off of some kind of chemical released by the human body, maybe pheromones.  I’m not quite sure.  Whatever the case, we can make our own sensor.  All I need to do is make a few alterations to the van’s AM/FM radio.  Alan, can you help me?”

“Sure thing, Val.”  Alan quickly went into the front seat, opened up the glove compartment, and grabbed a screw driver out of it.  He then lifted up the dash panel around the radio past the retaining clips and removed it.  Next, he used the screw driver to unscrew the four screws that kept the radio in place.  With the radio now loose, he yanked it out and unconnected the wires attached to the back of it.  He then handed it to Valerie.

“So you’re going to make this radio detect body chemicals or something?” Josie, a bit confused, asked.

“No.  It’s a radio.  So I’m just going to alter it to pick up a different kind of sound wave, a certain really high-pitched sound wave to be exact.  If Alexandra is in trouble, I’m sure she’s screaming at the top of her lungs.  I know you’re all aware of how distinct and piercing that sound is.”

“Oh god, don’t remind me,” Josie said, cringing at the painful memories of that high pitched wail that had been scratched into her psyche.

“Alexandra’s voice sounds really pretty when she’s screaming at the top her lungs,” Melody said, sounding nostalgic.  “I sure hope I get to hear it again.”

Valerie and Josie gave her disturbed looks.  “Sometimes, I think you do belong up in space with Captain Kirk, Melody,” Valerie told her.

“He he.  Thanks!”  

Everyone quickly got dressed, and Valerie went and retrieved a flashlight and her toolkit she brought with her everywhere from the back of the van.  She then got to work.  After about twelve minutes of tinkering with transistors, remapping circuitry, re-routing wires, altering switches, and attaching a small speaker and a couple lights, Valerie’s modified device was finished.  “Ok, it’s ready.”

“Wow, record timing, Val,” Alan said, impressed.

“No big deal.  I work well under pressure,” she said, sounding slightly vain.

“So are we going to have to hear her screaming?” Josie asked a bit apprehensively.

“I thought of that.  Thankfully, I took that into account in the design.”  She then turned a dial on the radio.  “Instead of her voice, all you will have to hear is a beeping sound.  The closer we get to her screaming, the louder the beeping will become.”  Suddenly, the device emitted a moderately soft beep.  “And there it goes.”  A few seconds later, the beeping sound repeated.

“But what if Alexandra stops screaming?” Melody asked.

“Good question, Melody.  The radio only needs to pick up the sound wave of Alexandra’s scream once.  We can learn what direction it came from, because the beeps will become louder the closer we come to where the sound wave originated.”

“Can’t we just go find a phone and call Scotland Yard or you know the park service or something?”  Alexander whined.

“We can do that later, but I think this is the fastest way to find her right now,” Valerie said.  Alexander let out another cowardly moan.

Valerie started walking forward in one direction with the device in her hands.  It suddenly emitted a beep that was slightly louder than the ones from before.  “Looks like Alexandra is in this direction.”  The rest of the group began following Valerie and her beeping machine.   She used her flashlight to illuminate the way through the dark forest.  However, she switched it off as the bright Scottish sun appeared over the horizon.

Trailing behind the rest of the group were Melody and Sebastian.  They seemed to be the most troubled out of the six.  She couldn’t quite put her finger on the reason why, but Melody had a strong hunch that Valerie’s machine was not going to find Alexandra.  This worried her greatly.  She then noticed Sebastian, who had been walking along side her, had stopped in his tracks and was sniffing the ground.

“Do you smell something, Sebastian?”

“Meow!”  He had indeed caught a whiff of something.  He sniffed it a few more times and deduced that it was in fact a faint mixture of three distinct scents.  One was unmistakably the intense odor of horse manure.  The second was a musty and fowl stench that smelled almost as bad.  Sebastian recognized it immediately from his confrontation with the druid.  The smell had been all over him.  Lastly, there was a faint hint of one of his favorite odors.  Most cats were repelled by the scent of perfume.  However, Alexandra’s favorite Yves Laurel perfume had become one fragrance he had taken a strong liking to, mostly because he identified it with his master.

Immediately, Sebastian took off into the woods in the opposite direction that Valerie and the rest of the gang were walking.  “Valerie!”  Melody called out to her.  Unfortunately, she did not hear her.  She was too far ahead now, and the beeping of her device had become so loud that it drowned out Melody’s cry. 

“She’s close by!”  Valerie yelled with excitement.  She then immediately began sprinting in that direction, and Josie, Alan, and a reluctant Alexander ran behind her.  Melody seeing Sebastian getting further away from her in the other direction made the snap judgment to follow him instead.

Finally, Valerie stopped when a blue light on her machine started flashing.  It was near a rather thick old pine tree.  It stretched up a good sixty feet in the air and was full of long thick branches covered with pointy green pine needles.

“Why did you stop?”  Alan asked her.

“This is where the sound wave originated from.”

“Darn, we must have missed her,” Josie said.

“Ok, she’s not here.  Time to give up,” Alexander said, sounding winded from the sprint.

Valerie looked down at her machine.  “Hmm.  I don’t think we missed her.  My sound wave detector says the last scream ended less than thirty-seven seconds ago.  Also, it’s showing the blue light instead of the red light.”

“What the heck does that mean?” Alexander asked.

“That means the source of the sound wave isn’t across from us.  It’s above us.”  All four youths looked up at the tall tree. 

Josie put her hands around her mouth and called out, “Alexandra, you can come down now!  It’s Josie, the Pussycats, Alan, and your chicken brother!”

“Hey, I resent that remark!”

“Then why don’t you climb up there and bring down your sister?”

“Chickens aren’t good a climbing!”  He started trembling just at the thought.  Josie rolled her eyes.

Josie, Alan, and Alexander all called up at her.  However, there was no response.

“Well, she doesn’t seem to want to come down.  Someone is going to have to go up there,” Valerie said.  “Melody, didn’t you used to like climbing trees as a girl?”  There was no answer.  Suddenly, everyone realized she was no longer with the group.  “Where’s Melody?”

“Oh my god, the Deadly Druid must have got her!  He’s probably after all of us!”  Alexander screamed at top of his lungs.  He then jumped into Alan’s arms.  “Save us, Alan!”

“Relax, chicken little.”  Alan set him on the ground.

“We’re dropping like flies!  We’re doomed!  Doomed I tell you!” he cried from the ground.  He then carried on with hysterical sobbing as he rocked back and forth in a fetal position.

“Melody probably just wandered off on her own again,” Josie surmised completely calmly.

“I agree,” Alan said, “but still, someone is going to have to go up there before we can go look for her.  I’ll do it.”

“You’re so brave, Alan!” Josie squealed.  He then flashed her a bright smile with his pearly white teeth.  Josie emitted an audible swoon from just seeing that perfect smile on his utterly gorgeous flawless face.

“Watch out for tree druids,” Valerie joked.

“No problem, I can handle then.”  He then grabbed onto a large branch and hoisted himself up on it.  He proceeded to grab on to the next branch above his head and do the same.

“According to the machine, you should only have to go up about forty-seven feet,” Valerie shouted.

Alan kept climbing up the pine’s strong branches until he guessed he was a little less than fifty feet in the air.  “All right, I think I’m there,” he yelled down. 

“Do you see Alexandra?” Josie shouted.

He looked around the branches on his level and scanned around the branches higher in the air.  It was a little dark due to the shade of the pine needles, but enough light filtered though that he could see clearly.  “Alexandra’s not here!”

“That can’t be right,” Valerie said, perplexed.  “Look around a bit more!”

“Well, all right, but I don’t see her!”  He then spotted a rather large hole in the tree trunk.  “Wait, I see something!”  It was a bit of a stretch, but perhaps a person could squeeze inside that hole if they tried. 

He crossed over to another branch beside him that was closer to the hole.  He then sat down on it and scooted over on the branch until he was right next to the opening.  He then bent over and stuck his head inside.  “Alexandra?”

Immediately, Alan felt excruciating pain as he was stabbed in the face with several extremely sharp objects.  He let out a ghastly scream as the hook like blades ripped at his face and faltered back down the branch.  Alan continued screaming as the creature from inside the hole, a rather large long-eared owl, kept digging into his face with its razor sharp talons.  Finally, Alan was able to bat the owl off of his head with a hard swipe of his arm.  It then screeched and flew away with Alan’s blood still dripping from its claws.

Josie and Valerie watched the bird soar away into the distance as it continued to screech.  “Well, it does sound a lot like Alexandra,” Josie remarked.  Valerie was too embarrassed to say anything.

“I can’t see!   I can’t see!” Alan shouted from the branch.  Alan was lucky enough that the owl’s talons had come a few fractions of an inch away from clawing out his eyeballs.  However, the wounds above his eyes were now gushing a continuous stream of blood downwards that made the entire world around him take on a crimson appearance.  As he struggled to regain his composure, he lost his balance on the branch and fell backwards.  He then slammed through a series of smaller branches, breaking them all, until he hit the ground with a loud thud.

Josie and Valerie screamed after seeing the former blond Adonis’s current ghastly appearance.  However, their screams were drowned out by the screams of Alexander that were even higher pitched than the owl’s.  “The tree druid got him!  Take the women, but spare me!  Ahhhhhhhhh!”  He continued screaming as he ran off frantically deep into the woods much like a chicken with its head cut off.

Alexandra opened her eyes.  She had a ringing headache and felt extremely groggy.  Beyond that, her back was very stiff.  It felt like she was lying on top of a very hard rocky surface.  However, when she looked ahead of her, instead of seeing the sky, she saw a line of trees edging up the sharp incline of a hill.  She then realized she was in fact in an upright position. 

When she attempted to move forward, she found that her legs could barely move and her arms could not budge even a centimeter.  She turned her head to the side and saw that her left wrist was bound tightly in a knot of black rope.  The rope at the end of that knot was stretched around a very large block of weather beaten stone that stood behind her.  Looking to her right, she could see the other end of the same rope stretched to a second knot around her right wrist.    She then tipped her head downwards and could see that her bare ankles were bound together as well, completing her crucifix like bondage to this rather large rock. 

For a few moments, Alexandra was confused as to what had actually happened.  She listened to the sounds of the forest for a moment.  They were peaceful and serene.  The loudest sound she could hear was the pretty chirping a bird in some far away tree.  She then felt a warm summer breeze blow against her bound body.  It tingled against most of her skin due to that fact that her curvy female form was still only covered by the tiny piece of lace and fabric that was her nighty. 

She then suddenly recalled the disturbing image of a man in a white hood shoving a piece of cloth in her face in the pale moonlight, and panic quickly set in.  “Heeeeeeeeeelp!  Somebody get me down from here!” she called out into the barren woods.

To her surprise, she heard a reply.  “Ah, you’re awake… perfect,” a very Scottish, mature voice said from behind her.  The person who said those words then stepped in front of her.  It was the druid still in his long flowing white robe and hood that hung over his face.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you let me down from here right now, you hooded weirdo!”

“No,” he said simply.

Ahhhhhhhhh!” Alexandra screeched at the top of her lungs.  “Let me down right now, you freak!  Let me down!  Let me down!  Let me down!  Someone arrest this nutcase!  Take him into custody!  Throw away the key!  You can’t treat me like this!  Do you know who I am?  I’m Alexandra Cabot!  You won’t get away with this!”

“Bellow all you want.  No one can hear you here.”

“Help!  Help!  Help!  Help!” she shouted.  “Some lunatic with no fashion sense has me tied up to a rock!  Someone come save me from this idiot!”

The druid then extended his hairy hand from his robe.  It was now wrapped in a white bandage thanks to Sebastian slashing the back of it with his claw.  He then reached back and slapped Alexandra hard against her face, producing a very loud smack.  “Silence, impudent wench!”

Despite the pain emanating from the big read palm print now against her cheek, Alexandra was undeterred.  “Silence this, asshole!”  She then sucked a good deal of air into the back of her throat and spat out all of the saliva and mucus she could muster in one big glob of spit. 

The glob went directly into the opening in the druid’s hood and splattered against his face on the inside.  He then reached with his hand and pushed the hood back.  Revealed was the face of an ugly bearded man of about 50 years of age with beady, dark eyes and pale, wrinkled skin.  The expression on his face was one of absolute resentment, resentment for the situation at hand as well resentment of society and the world at large.  However, a creepy smile suddenly crept across his hairy face.  He knew that soon his fortune would change, and it was all thanks to this young dark haired woman.

He continued his creepy smile as he let the saliva and mucus drip down his face.  This look infuriated Alexandra even more.  “Fuck you!”

Finally, he wiped her spit from his face.  “If you had done that, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Right!  Like I would give the time of day to an old hairy ape that lives in the woods and dresses up in his mommy’s bath robe!  Could you be anymore delusional?”

“I don’t think you quite comprehend your current situation.”

“I understand that you need to check yourself back into the loony bin, psycho!  Why don’t you just let me down from this rock, and then I can call the men in the white coats to come take you away.  Everyone will be happy.” 

“You don’t get it.  That ‘rock’ as you put it is actually named the Déu Stone.”

“Wow, you named a rock.  God, what a loser you are!”

A vein on the druid’s forehead began pounding from sheer annoyance, but he continued, “Coincidently, déu is a Gaulish word that means god.  So this is the God Stone.”

“You worship a rock?  And I thought Christianity was stupid!”  She then started laughing at him.  The druid reached back and slapped her again, this time twice as hard.  The slap was so severe that it left a dark purple bruise on her face.  “Just shut up and listen to me!”

Hmph!”  She didn’t say anything else, but continued her disobedience as a deeply bitter scowl.

“If you could see this very stone that is tied behind you, you may think it looks familiar.  Indeed, it was once one of the sacred stones that stood at Stonehenge.  In fact, what many fools like you fail to realize is that Stonehenge is missing the most important stone that once stood at the center of that religious monument.  It was and still is the key to the monument’s magical powers.”

Alexandra rolled her eyes harshly at the pure ridiculousness of this claim. 

The druid frowned but went on, “Doubt all you will.  The Gauls and their high priests, the druids, I of which am the last true surviving druid, have been persecuted and chastised for centuries.  However, what I speak is the truth.  The god referred to in the name the God Stone is Cernunnos.  Cernunnos is the horned god of life and death.  As such, this rock has amazing powers.  It can bring the dead back to life.  It can also grant eternal youth.  It is in fact believed that the stones of Stonehenge were carved from the horns of Cernunnos.”“They’re just rocks,” Alexandra muttered.“What was that?” The druid barked again, taking his hand back out of his robe.“Nothing!  Go on with your stupid story already!”

“A little over nineteen-hundred years ago, the land that would come to be known by the conquerors as Brittan was invaded by a people as nearly as arrogant and closed minded as you, the Romans.  My people were persecuted.  They were murdered, tortured, raped, and pillaged.  Even worse than that, they forced to adopt the complete inanity that is Roman culture.  The druids knew that they had to protect their superior culture and what was rightfully theirs.  They took the Déu Stone and dragged it northward to Scotland where they hid it deep in the forest in this very spot.  Since that day, my ancestors have guarded the Déu Stone.  Thankfully, the residents of this area are very superstitious.  All it took to keep away interlopers was the rumor of a ghost, one that my ancestors have worked very hard to maintain for generation after generation.”

“Thanks for the history lesson, grandpa, but that still doesn’t explain why you had to tie me up to this stupid rock!  When I get down from here, you’re going to regret it!” she screamed at the very top of her lungs.

“I’d slap you again, but what is coming is going to be far worse.”

Wha.. what do you mean?” Alexandra asked, now sounding slightly nervous.

“You don’t know much about the druids do you?”

“They were a bunch of nerds that dressed in hideous robes and danced around some stupid stones.  Can I go now?”

“Perhaps if you paid closer attention in history class…”

“We didn’t learn about the druids in history, you moron!  You’re not that important!”

Shut up! Shut up!  Shut up!  Yes we are!  We’re just as important as the most important Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians!”

“You’re a bunch of nerds!”

“Well, if you weren’t an uneducated swine, you would know that one of the things the druids are famous for is human sacrifice.”

“Human sacrifice?” Alexandra asked before letting out an audible gulp.

“Yes, and human sacrifice is required for this particular ceremony that will grant me eternal youth.  However, not simply any human sacrifice will do.  Only virgin blood can appease Cernunnos.”Suddenly Alexandra looked panicky and extremely embarrassed.  “Well, you’re going to have to find another victim, because I certainly am no virgin.”“You are.”“Please, you’re insane.  A girl as utterly gorgeous and tempting as me, a virgin?  Ha!  What a laugh!  Every day I have to fight off armies of total hunks most girls would die for!  I can’t keep them away from me!  I’m not a kid anymore!  I’m twenty-one years old, you moron!”

He then extracted the “laser gun” from a pocket inside his robe and held it out in front of her. He flipped the switch on the device, and the stone attached to it again emitted a pulsating neon green glow.  Strangely, Alexandra felt a weird vibrating sensation coming from the slab of rock behind her.  She turned her head and could see it was now glowing with the same neon green light as well.

The druid then squeezed the trigger.  The gun buzzed and the arrow on its gauge ran to the V.

“The small fragment of stone on this gun is certainly pleased to be reunited with its source, the Déu Stone.  It’s also quite pleased to be near you as well.  It can’t wait to feed off of the spiritual energy of your virgin blood.”

Wha-what are you talking about?”

“I may not look it to your deeply biased eyes, but I graduated at the top of my class in engineering from Oxford.  I used what I learned combined with my extensive knowledge of ancient Gaulish magic to develop this invention, the Virginometer 5000.  It harnesses the power of the Déu Stone to detect the innate magical power that only exists in virgin blood.”

“So that’s what V meant,” Alexandra growled.  “Even Sebastian isn’t a virgin,” she mumbled, almost sounding hurt.

“I couldn’t get a good reading from your group from far way.  So I simply gave it to you as a gift, and you were foolish enough to use it on each other at point black range while I watched from hiding.  You were also foolish enough to use that phony map I gave you to walk right into my trap.”

“So let me get this straight.  You had to go college to learn how to make some geeky invention just so you could find a virgin?  Even worse, since you’re the last survivor, that means you and your dorky ancestors have never actually found one even though you’ve looked for thousands of years.  That’s just pathetic.  How did your ancestors even reproduce if they were that bad at picking up girls?”

“Shut up!  It’s not as easy as it looks!”

“Maybe you should just sacrifice yourself!  You’re obviously the real virgin here!” she said before laughing at him.  Her laughs, however, sounded a bit forced.

The druid switched off the gun.  Both the stone behind Alexandra and the piece attached to the Virginometer 5000 immediately ceased glowing.  He then walked behind the Déu Stone to where Alexandra couldn’t see him. 

“Hey, where are you going?” she barked at him.  When he didn’t respond, she opened her mouth to yell at him a second time but closed her lips when she suddenly felt the blade of a long curved sword against her throat.  It was only a fraction of an inch away from slicing it open.

“Lucky for you, I can’t spill your blood for about fifteen more minutes.  Today is the summer solstice, and I have to wait until the sun is in the right position in the sky to perform the sacrifice.  Rest assured though, I will enjoy carving you up like a goose.  Now, excuse me, I must return to my quarters.  Before I kill you, I need to perform some sacred incantations that require great concentration, and I don’t want to be distracted by anymore of your insufferable blathering!”

Alexandra didn’t say anything, and soon she was left alone again.  She felt so bitterly alone, and it became even worse when it dawned on her that this was how she was going to die.  Tears started flowing out of her eyes at that simple realization. 

She couldn’t do much now but think back on her life.  She realized how much she had wasted it.  She had spent much of it trying to impress everyone else in her life.  However, no matter how much she forcefully tried to assert herself and convince them of how great she was, it didn’t seem to make much difference.  She didn’t receive much love back in return.

She spent some time thinking about the people in her life.  She thought about her very wealthy but rather cold parents.  They had certainly supplied her with everything she wanted except when it came to actual affection.  She thought about her less cold, but certainly not very dependable, brother.  He had been a slightly better confidant.  However, he had betrayed her in numerous instances including not letting her become part of Josie and the Pussycats even when promised. 

She thought about her pet, Sebastian.  His friendship had certainly been proven by his long-term loyalty to her.  That loyalty sometimes wavered, but those instances were few and far between.  Her supposed human friends in high school had certainly not been as loyal.  Their relationships with her didn’t seem to extend beyond taking advantage of her wealth and had not lasted beyond high school.  She thought about Alan, her unrequited love that barely even acknowledged her existence.  She also thought of Josie and Valerie, who had seemed to despise her but still put up with her presence enough to allow her to follow them around on tour for close to four years.

Finally, she thought about Melody.  She then realized that she was perhaps the only human being who was consistently kind and friendly to her.  Beyond that, her kindness seemed genuine.  A person as innately innocent as Melody certainly didn’t have any underlying motivations for being nice to her.  Yet, when she thought back, she could only remember times when she had been down right mean to her.  She had taken every opportunity she could to put her down to her face.  Despite this fact, she just smiled and remained friendly to her.  Her attempts to push her away had failed miserably. 

Now, however, Alexandra felt extremely guilty and remorseful for how she had acted.  Despite her confusion and initial denial, the mere suggestion that Melody had felt more for her than friendship had made her feel very happy.  It was a feeling of happiness she couldn’t remember the last time she had experienced.  That was now over though, and shortly, so would be her existence.

“I’m sorry, Melody,” she wept.

“Sorry for what, Alexandra?” a familiar voice asked, sounding confused.

Alexandra lifted her head up and opened her eyes.  She saw the beautiful blonde girl again giving her that pleasant warm smile.  “Melody, what are you doing here?” she asked, shocked.

“I’m here to rescue you!”

Alexandra’s eyes widened in panic.  “Alan!  Josie!  Valerie!  Anyone else!  Save me!  Save me!  Don’t leave my life in the hands of this idiot!  Ahhhhhhhh!”  Despite her remorse about how she had treated her, she wasn’t foolish enough to trust Melody with her life.

“He he he!  They’re not here.  It’s just me.  It looks like you’re playing cowboys and Indians with Mr. Drew-Head.  Pheewww, I was worried that you were in danger.”

“Melody, help me!  Help me, please!”

“Oh, you want me to play too.  Yay!  How fun!  I just love cowboys and Indians!  You must be a kidnapped cowgirl.”

“Help get me down!”  Alexandra cried.  “For the love of god!”

“Ok, we must be the good guys then!”  Melody tried to untie the knot of rope around Alexandra’s right wrist.  However, it had been expertly tied and she was having trouble loosening it.  “Golly, this knot sure is tight!”

“Hurry up, ok?” Alexandra pleaded.

Melody looked back at her and noticed a tear slowly sliding down her cheek.  “Awww, why are you crying, Alexandra?”  Melody then put her thumb on her cheek and wiped away the tear for her.  She then noticed the big dark spot on her cheek as well.  “Is that a bruise?  Was the drew-head playing rough with you?”

“Yes!  Untie the ropes or cut them down!  Do something, please!” she cried frantically.  She became even more panicked when she saw a white shape emerging from the forest.

“Meddler!” the druid shouted when he saw Melody.  He was holding his sword in front of him and was absolutely enraged that someone dared to interfere with his plans.

“Oh hi, Mr. Drew-Head!  I see you and Alexandra have been playing!  I’d like to play too, but you’ve been playing too rough with Alexandra.  You made her cry and you gave her a bruise.  Alexandra is my friend, so you play nice with her, you hear!” she shouted at him before frowning.  Someone being mean to Alexandra was certainly one of the few things that could make her angry.

Wha.. what did you call me?” the druid asked as he shook with rage.

“I called you Mr. Drew-Head, Mr. Drew-Head.  That is your name, right?”

“It’s pronounced druid.  Druid, you idiot!  Don’t you know anything about the great druids?”

“Ok, drew-head, got it!”  She then put her finger on her chin.  “Well, I know drew-heads like to dress in scary ghost costumes, play with ray guns, and now I know they like to play cowboys and Indians too.  Although, I think you’re doing it wrong.  Everyone knows Indians don’t use swords, silly.  They use bows and arrows!”

“Stop making fun of me!” he shouted at her.

“But that’s a very realistic fake sword you have there!”

“Melody, that’s a real sword!” Alexandra warned her.  She was getting more and more concerned, not only for her safety, but for Melody’s now as well.

“Gee, you think so?”  She squinted and looked at the long curved silver blade.  The steel was etched with letters that were very similar to those of the English alphabet but were arranged in a way that Melody didn’t recognize as words.  “It does look very real, but why would anyone use a real play sword?  He he, that’s just silly!”

“This isn’t a play sword, you fool!  This is the Nemach Calghíon!  It’s a sword that was passed down from generation to generation by my ancestors!  It is a sacred sword used only for certain ceremonies that require human sacrifice by blade!  It has seen more blood and gore than you can imagine!”

“Golly, you sure have a great imagination, Mr. Drew-Head!”

Stop calling me that!

“Stop calling you what, Mr. Drew-Head?”

I’ll kill you!”  He then raised the sword high over his head and brought it down directly at the blonde’s smiling face.  However, she quickly ducked to the ground and rolled out of the way.  The blade missed Melody and swiped down on the Déu Stone a few inches away from Alexandra’s wrist.  It sliced the rope in half, and Alexandra fell to the ground as a result.

“Damn you!” he shouted as he kept slashing his sword down at the giggling blonde.  Each time he brought his sword down, however, she simply rolled out of the way.  “Weeee, this is fun!

A few feet away, Alexandra tried to stand up, but fell flat on her face.  Despite the fact that her arms were now free, her ankles were still bound together.  She tried to unfasten the knot, but it was no use.  It was simply tied too tight.

“Stay still, you swine!” the druid shouted at Melody, getting frustrated.

Melody, however, was too quick for him.  Soon she had gotten up and was running laps around the Déu Stone with the druid in close pursuit with his sword.  “Catch me if you can!” she sang.  He kept slashing down with his blade, but each time, it was still an inch or so away from slicing into her back.

As they made a fourth lap, Alexandra, still on the ground, raised her bound ankles and tripped the druid as he came back around.  As he fell, he dropped his sword and the Virginometer 5000 fell out of a pocket inside his robe to the grass.

Melody sighted the device and immediately scooped it up from the ground.  She then flipped it on, aimed it at the druid, and squeezed the trigger several times in a row.  “Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Take that!”  The device buzzed, and the stone attached to it glowed neon green as the arrow on its gauge ran to the V reading.   The Déu Stone immediately began glowing with the same bright green color.  “Oh, pretty!” Melody remarked.

As Melody was distracted by the large glowing stone, Alexandra crawled on the ground frantically for the sword.  Unfortunately for her, the sword was ripped right from under her grasp by the druid’s hairy hand.  He then stood up and raised the sword over her.  “You’re still going to be my virgin sacrifice!”

Alexandra closed her eyes and waited for death.  However, instead of feeling the blade, she heard a familiar feral cry and the druid scream.  She opened her eyes and looked up to see Sebastian on the druid’s head, clawing viciously into the opening of his hood and drawing blood that was now dripping down his white robe.  The cat had in fact been hiding on the high branch of a near by tree, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Finally, the druid managed to rip Sebastian off of his face by grabbing a hold of the skin of his back.  He then flung him hard against the Déu Stone.  The cat bounced off of the rock and landed next to Alexandra.

The druid then removed his hood.  His hairy face was now drenched in a thick coat of blood thanks to the long gashes that Sebastian had dug in with is claws.  He wiped some blood off of his face, staggered forward a bit, and placed his hand on the Déu Stone for balance.  As soon as his blood made contact with the stone, it began vibrating with great force, and its neon green color changed to a glow of blood red crimson.  He stepped back away from the pillar of rock and seemed terrified at what he saw.

Ooooh, it changed from green to red.  Reminds me of Christmas,” Melody said, sounding sentimental.  She then saw the druid’s appearance.  “Looks like you need a band-aid, Mr. Drew-Head.”

It’s druid!  Druid!  Druid!  Druid!  Ahhhhhhhhhhh!” he screamed as he rushed at her with his sword.  Just before he would have skewered her, however, she darted out of the way.  He then literally tackled the Déu Stone so hard that it began to tip over. 

Sebastian opened his eyes again on the other side and saw the block of stone coming.  He then quickly scratched at Alexandra’s side to tell her to move.  She got the message and rolled out of the way just in time. 

Sebastian, however, was not so lucky.  He had been so concerned with Alexandra’s safety that he didn’t even bother to get out of harm’s way himself.  The large red-glowing stone slammed on top of the lower half of his body, flattening it. 

“Sebastian!” Alexandra cried.  Again, tears began rolling down her cheeks as she held the head of her cat.  He let out one painful cry, closed his eyes, and died.

Suddenly, however, Sebastian began glowing with the same red light as the Déu Stone.  He again opened his yellow eyes, and Alexandra watched in awe as he seemed to transform.  His coat, which had become a bit grayer in spots in recent years, became much more consistently dark.  His face also lost the somewhat haggard appearance it had developed over time and reverted to a younger shape that Alexandra remembered from shortly after he was a kitten.

Sebastian then stabbed his claws into the ground and pulled himself out from under the rock.  Alexandra watched as his lower half that was as flat as a pancake inflated back to its prior healthy shape.  “Meow!”

Alexandra immediately grabbed him and started kissing him all over his furry face.  “Oh, Sebastian, you stupid cat, you’re alive!” she cried.  As she continued to kiss him, the glow coming from both the cat and the Déu Stone grew dimmer until it disappeared all together.

Melody stood over the two.  “Is everything ok, Alexandra, or should I give you two some privacy?”

Alexandra pulled her lips away from her cat.  “No, Melody.  I can’t walk, and we need to get out of here!  Sebastian, help me.”  Sebastian walked to Alexandra’s bare ankles that were bound together by black rope.  He raked his very sharp claws across the rope several times fast.  However, the rope was so hard and so taught that his claws had no effect.  Sebastian shook his head.  “Mrow.”

“He he.  Don’t worry, Sebastian, I know what to do,” Melody told him.  She then leaned down, placed one hand under Alexandra’s bottom and another hand under her back, scooped her up off of the ground, and held her in her arms. 

Alexandra was more than a bit surprised and blushed madly.  “Me-Me-Melody, you’re so strong,” she stammered. 

He he he.  I’m a drummer.  Of course my arms are strong, silly!”

Alexandra blushed even more.  She felt very safe like this.  She could also feel a wonderful fluttery feeling in her stomach that quickly reverberated through out her entire body.  The sensation was so soothing and so pleasant that she completely forgot about the dangerous situation she was in.  She unconsciously wrapped her arms around Melody’s shoulders, closed her eyes, and snuggled into her chest and neck.

On top of the collapsed Déu Stone, the Deadly Druid came to.  When he looked down at the large stone beneath him, he was shocked to see it again resembled an ordinary slab of gray rock.  He then took the sword he still gripped in his right hand and held the back of the blade in front of his face. 

He was utterly infuriated to see the reflection of his old, wrinkled, ugly face smeared with blood.  He was expecting to see a much younger version of himself.  “I can’t perform this ceremony for another twenty years!  You meddlers ruined it!  Ruined it!  I’ll kill you!  I’ll kill you all!”

Hearing his voice, Alexandra was snapped out of the trance she had been lulled into in Melody’s arms.  “Melody, you have to run now!” she warned her.

“He he!  Ok!”  She immediately started sprinting with the blushing raven haired girl still cradled in her arms.

The druid jumped off the Déu Stone and started a pursuit with his sword in hand.  Sebastian hissed when he saw him coming and again leapt at him with his claws drawn.  However, the druid was prepared this time and slashed at him hard with his sword.  The blade hit Sebastian’s back, cutting deep into his flesh and bone.  The druid then left the cat to die and continued to charge ahead for the two women, fueled only by his thirst for their blood. 

Despite the fact it should have been fatal, the deep bloody wound on Sebastian’s back quickly healed as if through magic.  A few seconds later, he was once again in perfect health.  He stood back up and started racing after the white shape he saw far ahead of him, hissing with anger.

Alexandra looked behind Melody and saw the druid closing in on them and slashing up and down with sword, mad with bloodlust.  “Run faster!  Faster!  He’s coming!”

“Ok!  Weeeeeeeee!  This is fun!” she yelled happily as she sped up.  The druid sped up his pursuit as well.  The two women and one robed man weaved in between trees through the thick forest for some time.  They then entered a clearing and began racing up a steep hill. 

Alexandra was worried that Melody would soon loose steam due to the hill’s sharp incline.  However, the blonde’s energy seemed almost limitless.  So was the energy of the druid.  Alexandra nervously watched him get closer and closer from behind them as she grabbed tight onto Melody’s shoulders.  He was determined to run them both through his sword, no matter the cost.  He was now only a couple of feet away from doing just that. 

The intensity of the chase continued until they reached the peak of the tall hill.  “Oh look, a cute bunny!”  Melody yelped.  She then suddenly stopped and stepped a few feet to the left to view the brown mountain hare that was about twenty feet away and scratching the side of his head with his big furry foot.

The sudden change in position had caught the druid completely off guard.  He ran right past the two women and then tried to change direction.  Unfortunately for him, he did not realize he had just crossed the peak of the steep hill.  As he tried to regain his footing, he tripped on his robe and dove forward down the sharp drop on the other side 

As he rolled down the hill, his curved sword was inadvertently shoved up his robe and into the space between his legs, impaling him like a shish kabob.  He continued to roll down the steep hill with the sword still lodged inside him, leaving a trail of blood behind.  When his body finally came to a stop, he was already dead. 

Alexandra had seen it happen, having paid attention to him instead of Melody’s bunny.  “Melody, you killed him!” she shouted, shocked.

Melody turned around and also looked down at the Deadly Druid, whose robe was now redder than white and was accented by the curved blade poking out through his chest.  Melody immediately began sobbing.

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