T.N - Chapter 23

I wasn’t exactly lying when I said I wasn’t feeling well, nor was I really telling the truth. I wasn’t strictly ill, but I was absolutely exhausted, as I had spent all of the previous night reading the rest of the journal and thinking about it. The rest of the journal wasn’t particularly exceptional, until near the end, where Laura kept on trying to convince herself to leave. I guess she finally found enough reasons to leave, as she hasn’t been in the picture for a vey long time.

For some reason, I thought of Heathcliff’s cell phone at that moment. The last I remembered of it, the Dragon had slipped it into his pocket and entered the truck on our way here.

“Heathcliff,” I said, stopping and turning around. “Whatever happened to your phone?”

“My phone?” he asked, puzzled. “Whatever for? Right now, we need to focus on escaping this dungeon of a fortress!”

“Uh, don’t you remember? Your phone has GPS tracking?”

“I’m sorry darling, but I don’t get it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I muttered under my breath. Just how stupid could he get? “Before the Dragon took it, I had called my grandfather, and he was going to be able to track us down with it?” I explained to him slowly. “If he hasn’t turned it off, my grandfather should be on the way.”

“Oh, right! Of course I knew that—“

“Do you remember if he took it out of his pocket at all?” I interrupted him.

Heathcliff paused to think. He started to mutter to himself, and so I crossed my arms and waited for him to figure it out.

“I believe he took it out…but where?” he declared. I was surprised he could remember, as he was drunk at the time. I would’ve expected his memories to be a bit more impaired.

“And when was this?” I pressed.

“Uh, um… his face furrowed into an expression of grim concentration. “I think…in the truck?”

“Brilliant,” I said. “I know where they are, thank goodness. Now is just a matter of getting there from here.”

That took a lot longer than I expected, as Heathcliff seemed to have escorted me in the wrong direction. It took us some exploring to try to orient ourselves, and thankfully, one of the few women workers here pointed us towards the bedrooms (exactly where we needed to go).

We walked past a rather large set of doors, and I could hear music playing in the background. I believe it was the theme to “Gone With the Wind.” I could hear two people whistling to it, and my curiousity was aroused. Heathcliff and I peered through the small crack that the door offered and found myself looking at Charlie and the Dragon playing chess. They were sitting at a table with a built-in chessboard, sack dab in the middle of an impressive den. Humph, fitting for the Dragon to have a den. They started to talk.

“So what are you thinking of doing with your life, young man?” asked the Dragon, moving his black piece forward. Charlie stared at the board for a bit, and then moved a piece to counteract.

“I don’t know…probably go back home and marry my childhood sweetheart,” shrugged Charlie. “I’ve known her since we were small, and everyone’s been bugging us to get married already.”

“Hmm,” replied the Dragon, and he smoothly captured one of Charlie’s pieces. “Don’t just jump into this. I’ve been meaning to tell Wolfgang this too, but you know, things have been rough so far.”

He watched Charlie move another piece, and then he moved a piece to place Charlie into checkmate. They reset the board, and started playing again.

“Marriage can be a wonderful thing, especially if both parties are deeply in love with each other. But marriages, even the deepest ones, can slowly accumulate mistakes and grudges, and then fall apart.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Charlie.

“I once was married. But things came apart shortly after Wolfgang was born. She fled, leaving Wolfgang and me alone. I don’t wish that upon anyone, so you must think carefully about it.”

“Oh,” said Charlie simply. Of course, at that moment, Heathcliff lost his balance and nearly knocked the door open. Thankfully, I managed to shut it, but rather unfortunately, I also managed to slam the door.

I grabbed Heathcliff’s hand, hauled him up, and started running as fast as I could away from the door and towards the trucks to find the phone.