Checkmate

"They're gone," I whispered. But how? That's impossible! I swear, they were just there fifteen minutes ago! Was this all happening just because I didn't get enough sleep and now I'm seeing things?

"What? Who's gone?" Luna asked frantically.

I couldn't let Luna know that I actually was crazy. So I lied. "Um, no one. Just some kids sitting over at that table." She turned her head to look behind her. "Uh, so did you bring your chess set?" I asked quickly, distracting her.

She smiled. "Oh yeah!" She reached under her seat and grabbed her school bag. "Here it is." She pulled out a wooden checkered board and a little plastic bag that held all the pieces in it. She dumped them all out on the table. I caught the ones that were about to slide off onto the floor.

Her chess set was wooden and very old looking. The playing pieces had chips and parts missing. Broken.

"It's not new, as you can see. I got it for a dollar at a garage sale," she answered my unspoken question.

"That's alright. A chess set is a chess set." I didn't care what condition it was in. I just really needed to get my mind off of the knights in my sketch book that didn't seem to even be there to begin with. Impossible.

I quickly set up the pieces in their correct spots on the board. I took a deep breath and tried to let it out slowly. Calming myself. Luna was eyeing me suspiciously.

"Okay," I started, "first I'm going to teach you the names of the pieces and how they move. Then, if we have the time, I'll run you through a quick game."

She nodded, eager to get started. "Oh, wait, some of the pieces landed on the floor." She picked up two pieces. "Just the knight and pawn fell." She set it on the board.

"Now," I said picking up the smallest piece on the board, "I see you already know that this is a pawn." I set it back down and picked up the horse-looking piece. "And that this is a...knight." For some reason it was hard to get that last word out. I set the piece down and picked up another one. "This is a rook and that's a bishop." I set it down and pointed with two fingers to the two pieces in the middle of my side. "And of course you probably already know that this is the king, and queen."

Luna nodded. "Yup. Last night I taught myself all the names of the pieces so it wouldn't be so hard for you to teach me." I grinned.

"Chess can be a very complex game at first. So it is very, very important that you pay attention." I looked at her seriously. I was now in chess player mode. To me, this game was no joke. It had to be taken seriously. I've grasped that rule and never let it go for the many years I've been playing.

"All right. I got it. I'm paying attention now." She looked down fiercely at the pieces. I chuckled.

"Well, right now I'm just going to show you how the pieces move. That's the easy part."

She looked back up at me and smiled sheepishly. "Oh."

It only took five minutes to run through how the pieces move. It wasn't very complicated. Unless of course you have short term memory loss.

The pawns were the pieces that filled up the whole front on your side of the board. The first move they made they are able to move up to two squares. They can only move forward, but they attack opponents diagonally. The rooks were the pieces that were placed in the two corners. They can move forward, sideways, and backward as far as they could go without hitting another piece. They can't go diagonally. That's also how they attack. The piece that looked like a horse was called the knight. It moved in an "L" shape. Forward one, then two over. Or, forward two and then one over. It can go over other pieces and only attack when the opponent’s piece is on the last square the knight lands on. Next to the knight, was the bishop. The bishop is the exact opposite of the rook. It can only attack and move diagonally.

And then there were the king and queen. The queen has to be your most powerful piece in the game. It can move in any direction and as far as it can so long as there are no other pieces in the way. The king can move in any direction also, but only go one square at a time. When you or your opponent attacks the king, the game is over.

Luna and I started a game and got half way into it. I was winning, of course. All of her pieces were gone now except for three pawns and the king. I was quite impressed with Luna though. She got one of my knights, a bishop, and two of my pawns. I taught her some strategies that might help.

"Checkmate," I announced with a grin as I cornered her king with my rook.

Luna sighed and flicked her king over. "You win." She smiled. "That was fun though. Maybe next time I'll actually beat you."

I laughed. "Maybe in a couple years after you've played more than twice." She laughed too.

I looked around the lunch room. Only a couple people at a few tables were left, still finishing up their lunch and talking with their friends. "I guess it's time to go now," I said, standing up. I looked at my sketch book, sighed, and picked it up. Where are those knights? I thought over and over in my head. But then I just decided to let it drop. I wasn't crazy. Just tired. I haven't been getting enough sleep, so I probably was thinking about drawing two knights, but never got around to it. There for, they were never there and I just imagined it all. I wasn't going to waste my time trying to convince myself that there was a drawing there and everybody else around me were the crazy ones.

I got up and started walking to my second to last class. Luna quickly hopped up out of her seat and skipped by my side. "Thanks for showing me how to play chess."

"No problem. You learn fast. You were so close to beating me!"

"Really?!"

"No." I laughed. She frowned. "But I've been playing longer than you." I put my hand on her shoulder. "Just keep practicing."

"I will beat you." We both laughed then.

"Then why don't you come over after school today?" I now stood by my locker. I started turning the lock.

"Can't. I have piano lessons." She pushed her lips out into a pout. I opened my locker, took out a notebook, my textbook, a pen, and closed it again.

"That's too bad."

"Well, see you later then, Abby." She turned and left.

My next two classes went by quickly. Maybe because of the fact that I was asleep for part of the time. We weren't doing anything important...I think. Just reading some chapter out of our book and working on the worksheets. Nobody seemed to noticed my head down on my desk, my eyes slowly closing. The next thing I knew was school was over. Thank heavens!

Luna was being picked up by her mom so she could get to her piano lesson on time. So I walked home alone. This was fine with me because I liked it better quiet. Luna was always talking. She supported most of the conversations. There was always something to talk about with her. I sometimes imagined her as a pixi or a five-year old kid who just ate a bowl of sugar.

Michael on the other hand was completely sane compared to her. He's a straight A student. Very tall with reddish blond hair and faded green eyes that look like mint ice cream.

I had my hand on the door handle, already imagining where everybody would be when I walked in. Lewis would be in his room playing his guitar while Tammy would be in the living room painting. Both of my parents were at work.

I opened the door and walked it. Nobody was there.

"Hello?" I called. I walked into the kitchen and noticed a piece of paper on the counter. It was a note. Abby, it said. I recognized Tammy's handwriting right away. I left with Lewis to the store; be back in a few.

Great, I thought to myself. Now I'm bored and alone. I guess I could always play chess with myself.

I stepped into my room and dropped my school bag onto the floor. I went over to my stereo and turned it on so I could listen to some music. Then I turned on my computer. I sat down, waiting for it to be finished loading. I threw my shoes off and leaned back, relaxing. I let my eyes lids close slowly.

When I woke up a little pop-up on my computer screen started flashing, letting me know I had mail. It was a message from Michael.

He just wrote in the message about why he wasn't at school today. Apparently he caught something from his older brother. I wrote back, telling him I hoped he got better soon, and hit send.

"Interesting place you got here," a voice said. I gasped and spun around, falling out of my chair.

The voice came from a boy sitting on my bed. He was very pale with curly light blond hair. His eyes were sapphire blue and wide. You could hardly call him a man because he looked younger than me. Maybe about Lewis's age.

"Now now, Elliot. You can't just sneak up on people like that. You almost gave the poor girl a heart attack." I looked up to see a tall man standing over me. His shaggy black hair almost covered his eyes. He held out a hand to me. His skin was slightly tanned. "Are you alright?" he asked me.

"W-Who are you?" I finally managed to choke out.

The one who sat on my bed chuckled. "I guess it's not that obvious, is it?"

I took the tall man's hand and he helped me up to my feet.

"I'm Aaron, and this is Elliot." He gestured to the boy who now got up from my bed and walked over to his side.

"And we are your Fluturian knights," Elliot said.

I froze where I stood. If my eyes were wide a few moments ago, they were now popping out of my head. Elliot laughed again.

I shook my head in disbelief. "That's not possible."

"Oh, but it is," Aaron disagreed.

"And you're in trouble." Elliot crossed his arms across his chest.

My eyes narrowed.

"You see," Aaron explained, "as the creator of Flutura, we expected you to give us a princess, but you didn't, and so as you can see, we are here."

I held up my hand in front of me. "Wait, wait, wait! Are you telling me that the only reason you two are here is because I forgot an addition to my drawing?" I raised my eye brows. Then I started laughing hard.

"Our creator belongs in a straight jacket," Elliot whispered to Aaron.

"Luna put you up to this, didn't she?" I asked after controlling my laughter. Elliot and Aaron looked confused.

"I...don't seem to understand what you're talking about...," Aaron said slowly. He scratched his head.

"You two are wonderful actors! Seriously, I really believed you for a second there. So, how much did Luna pay you? Clearly she was upset that I didn't put a princess in my drawing so now she got two guys who look just like the missing knights from my sketch book to get back at me. That's very clever of her. I'll have to remember to give her a pat on the back the next time I see her."

Elliot and Aaron exchanged a long confused glance. Then Aaron turned back to me. "No, nobody paid us to do this. We don't even know who this Luna is. Honest."

Then it hit me. How could Luna be behind this? I didn't even mention to her that I drew two knights. And even if I did, which I didn't, how could she get two guys to come and sneak into my house within a matter of minutes? Unless she didn't have a piano lesson today. Still, Elliot and Aaron looked so much like the knights in my sketch book. Impossibly similar to my drawing. So similar it was scary. They even wore the same clothes in my picture: old fashioned, a little tattered, baggy, and light colored.

So then, if Luna didn't do this, and I'm sure nobody else could have (I never show my drawings to anyone except Luna), then that means...

I gasped. "Y-You're really my Fluturian knights. From my drawing."

Elliot snorted. "That's kind of what we've been saying, stupid." Aaron smacked the backside of his head. "Hey!"

I started to feel a little dizzy. All this was too much for me. The impossible has just become possible. I sat down in my computer chair and stared up and the ceiling. Elliot and Aaron just waited patiently.

After a while a finally whispered, "So what do you want then?"

"Simple," Aaron said lightly. "We just need you to create Flutura a princess. There's nobody around to really give orders and laws and rules. So it would be more than helpful for you to do what we ask."

"I gave you a princess."

"No. You gave us a arm of a princess. We need a whole one."

Elliot laughed.

"And if I object?" I looked away from the ceiling at directly at Aaron, my eyes narrowed.

He laughed once without humor. "Well, why wouldn't you?" He smiled but looked confused and a little shocked.

I just shrugged. "My drawing. I should be able to do whatever I want with it."

Elliot laughed. "Ooh, she's a stubborn one, isn't she? Good luck budging her on that one." He flopped back down on my bed. Aaron scolded him.

"Look," he said sternly, all kindness and patience gone, "I suggest that you do what we ask of you. But if you still refuse to create our ruler, then we'll have no choice but to take you back to Flutura and make you princess!"

"Ha! You really think that I would agree to either one?!" I scoffed. He didn't reply. "Well," I continued, getting up, "it's been really great catching up with you guys, really, but I have other things to do. I'm kind of hungry." I opened the door, took one step into the hallway and turned back to him. "You want anything?" I teased.

"Ooh," Elliot sat up, "do you have any chicken? I'm starving!"

"One chicken sandwich coming up." I smiled (almost laughed too) and left the room, heading toward the kitchen. I wasn't surprised to hear Aaron's footsteps behind me. I ignored him though.

But he quickly ran in front of me and blocked my way. He didn't look very happy.

"I think you should be taking this more seriously. We're in a middle of a war."

I raised my eye brows. "And you think a princess would help you win?"

"Not exactly. We just need some kind of a ruler. Please," he pleaded. I could tell that he was trying to sound a little more polite.

I wasn't about to give in that easily though. "Just leave me alone. Please." I pushed past him. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a clean cup from inside the cupboard above the stove. I took the juice carton out of the fridge and started pouring juice into my cup.

"But what about the war?" he said. He wasn't going to let it go, was he?

I tried to tune him out by humming loudly to myself. So that's why it surprised me when I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard Elliot's voice.

"Think about it," Elliot murmured. "You don't give us a ruler, we make you the princess. Of course, unless you wanted to be King." He laughed.

I rubbed my temples. "So if I draw you your princess or ruler or whatever, you'll leave me alone?"

He nodded. "Yup."

"No."

"What?"

"You heard me. I said no. It's my drawing and I'll do what I want with it. You can't tell me what to do." I glared at him. The smile from his face disappeared.

"Very well then," he muttered. I stepped back. "I guess we'll just leave you then. So sorry." He left the kitchen. I looked around and Aaron was already gone too. I heard the door close in the front entry way.

"Finally," I breathed in relief. I got up and set my cup in the sink. I stretched and went back to my room. I was tired but didn't feel up for a nap after what just happened.

Once I walked into my room someone grabbed me from behind. I screamed and tried to kick away but the arms around me were too strong.

"Stop...squirming!" It was Aaron's voice. Aaron's arms struggling to keep a hold on me. "Elliot!" he shouted out the door.

Elliot ran into the room just then, holding some kind of rope in one hand and a piece of cloth in the other.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled. I wasn't making any effort of getting away. Aaron was too strong.

I screamed louder and longer.

Elliot put the cloth over my mouth and tied it in the back of my head so now I couldn't scream or talk. It wasn't until after he started tying my arms down to my side with the rope that I realized what he was doing. What they were doing.