Call to Arms

Three

“Dude are you coming?”
“I can’t find my shirt!”
“Just pick a shirt and lets go!”

I hear the yelling from Patrick Kane, who was most likely eating the potato chips out of the bag, as I dig my closet up looking for my shirt. It was the one time of year where there would be one of those team meetings that we have to dress nice for. Knowing Patrick, he was most likely wearing khakis and a polo, making it look like he was about to go to a golf outing.

“Dude, what is taking so long?” I hear Brandon yell now as I’m still looking for my shirt.
“God forbid Jonny isn’t the best dressed,” Patrick replies.
“Well Shawzer is bitching a fit because he can’t stay parked out there for too long.”
“Well tell that kid to kiss my ass!”

I yell as I throw clothes out of my closet. That’s when I thought I heard something fall from the shelf. I bend down to not only find my shirt but a book laying face forward next to it. I pick the book up and blow the dust off it. There was no title, but it had binding all over the cover that I had never seen in my entire life. I run my hand over it while something tells me to not open the book.

“Where did..”
“DUDE COME ON!” Brandon yelled.

I throw my shirt on and grabbed the book before leaving my room. The two of them are staring at me now. I knew what was about to come; one of them was about to give me shit for freaking out over a v-neck. “Dude, you made us wait ten minutes over a fucking v-neck?” Brandon said as Patrick rolled his eyes.

“I panicked,” I say, looking down at the book.
“What is that?” Patrick asked me.
“I don’t know, I found it in my closet.”
“What else are ya hiding, skeletons?”
“Can we get going before that child has a conniption?”

I follow the two into the elevator and the next thing I knew, we were in Andrew Shaws little BMW. I get in the backseat as I catch Andrew looking at me through the rear view mirror. I bring my face back to the book. Where in the hell did this book come from? “Dude, you do realize I had to fight with a bunch of pedestrians right?”

“Sorry bro,” I reply, not taking my eyes off the book.
“What’s he looking at?” Andrew asked.
“A book of some sort, I found it in my closet just now,” I reply as I feel Andrew accelerate on the gas pedal.
“Well why don’t you open it?”
“Something tells me we shouldn’t open it.”
“And what happens if we do, we let the spirits come out to play?” Brandon joked.
“I don’t know, I really don’t think we should open it.”
“Oh come on dude, just open the book!” Patrick yelled like a five year old.

I roll my eyes and sighed. I mean, what was the worst that could happen? I look up and we’re in the parking lot of the United Center with a whole hour to kill. I look down at the book as Brandon and Andrew bend over there seats from the front. I put my hand on the book and opened it, as we watched the bright light come out of the book. “DUDE!” They all yelled.

“THAT’S FUCKING BRIGHT!” Patrick yelled.
“You wanted me to open the book!” I yelled back.
“Dude, what’s that say?” Brandon asked.

We all peer closer into the light to notice there was text on the what appeared to be old looking pages, but it was all a different language. I then close the book as the gut feeling I had before grew. We all exhaled a breath and all eyes were dead set on me. “Dude,” Andrew began, looking at the book then back at me. “Where did you say you found this?”

“My closet.”
“That’s no ordinary book…that’s like a fucking spell book or something of that shit,” Brandon began. “I hope we didn’t awake the devil or something.”
“Well now the book is in our hands and we should probably destroy it,” I tell them.
“And how the fuck do you expect us to do that?” Patrick asked.
“I don’t know, maybe we should flush it down the toilet,” Brandon joked.
“Yeah because this book is going to fit down the toilet. Look we have an hour to kill, lets go inside and see if we can try to burn it or something at one of the food stands,” I suggest.
“I don’t care what we do, we need to get rid of this book,” Shawzer snapped.

We all jumped out of the car and make a beeline for the United Center. We let ourselves in to see we were the first to arrive. I take a look around and let out a sigh. Operation destroy some random book was about to commence.

-Ella-

The next day rolls around but none of us slept. I was still in complete shock that someone or something took my father. The five of us are now sitting at the kitchen table, not saying a word. “What was that thing that took my father?” I ask no one in particular.

“That would be Maleficent,” Jocelyn replied. “She’s looking for the book, but instead decided she wanted to take your father.”
“So now on top of finding this book, I have to kill her and find my parents?”
“Ella, it could be worse,” Raegan tells me.
“Maleficent is in this realm…looking for the book.”
“Oh well that’s great,” I begin. “Alright, where the hell is this book?”

I watch Jocelyn stand up and spread her hands into a full circle. The four of us walk over to here to notice that were now staring into a crystal ball. We peer closely at it, noticing were over looking four men who had to be in there twenty’s. That’s when I recognized the setting. “Isn’t that the United Center?”

“Wait, why is Jonathan Toews holding a book!?” Emma yelled.
“No fucking way…” I begin but stop talking when I look to see Patrick Kane is there with him.

“Guys,” we hear him yell. “I googled the text on the cover of the book. It says Travsana, which is apparently a term used in a folklore legand about Maleficent.”
“Who?!”

My eyes are about to pop out of my sockets. Jonathan Toews, Andrew Shaw, and Brandon Saad were peering over what appeared to be a frying pan. I look at Raegan, Kait, and Emma, who looked just as shocked. “Are they trying to fry the book?” Emma asked but I sushed her.

“Maleficent, come on, am I the only one in this room who knows who the hell she is?” Patrick began.
“Oh excuse us for not watching Disney,” Jonathan yelled. “WHY WON’T THIS TURN ON!?”
“The legend is this was book she used to cast a curse on a family…great, we now have a book from a folklore legand.”
“So did we let some evil thing in?” Brandon yelled.
“I don’t know but that thing isn’t turning on so we need a plan B and fast.”

The visual of the four men fades away. I look at everyone in the room. The fucking book was in the hands of four hockey players. “Well then,” I begin, trying to soak in what I just witnessed. “We’re all screwed because lets face it, they opened the book.”

“Which they shouldn’t have, because Maleficent will find them.”
“Well, we should probably go get that book,” Kait began before Emma cut her off.
“Really, because I don’t know about you but last I checked we don’t have anyway of getting into that building.”
“You will with my help.”

We look over at Jocelyn and I could then see she had a plan. I sigh, trying to figure out how the hell the book even landed in the hands of a hockey player. “I can set a freeze on the city, except for you four and whoever has the book. You will have two hours to get the book. In the mean time, I have to go back to my world,” she tells us. I look at her as if she were nuts. We have a time limit to get the book.

“Are you crazy?” I tell her.
“Once you get the book, I will open a portal for you to come into our world. From there, we’ll figure out a way to destroy the book.”
“And what if we run into crazy?” Emma exclaims.
“You might…and crazy is just a mild term to describe her.”

I look at Emma, Kait, and Raegan. There was no way in hell I was even remotely ready for any of this. In fact, I’m quite surprised the three of them wanted to even help me with this. “If you’re going to help me, you’re going to have to stay calm,” I tell them.

“Ella, do you really think we’d let you do this alone?” Kait smiled.
“Well…Jocelyn, set the freeze on the city,” I say.

With that, Jocelyn walks over to the window and with one motion of her hand; we felt a shock wave happen. She then walks back over to us with a smile. “Remember, you have two hours to get this book. After that, the freeze will come undone.”

“Well,” I look at everyone and let out a sigh, “We are about ten minutes away from the United Center…lets make a move for it.”

-Jonathan-

“Did you guys feel that?”

I ask as we stop walking through the hallway. The four of us look at one another, I couldn’t have been the only one who felt the ground shake. I watch Andrews eyes peer over to the book, the floor, and then at me. “Whose grand idea was it to open the book?” He asked.

“Really?” I yell as we continue to walk.
“Okay, we really need to think of what to do with this book,” Brandon began. “Who has a lighter?”
“Dude are you for real? We light that thing on fire and either we set this place on fire or all hell will really break loose!” Kanner yelled at him.
“And do you have a better idea then?”

We all stop walking as we stand around in a somewhat circle. We’re all looking at one another and it was at that moment I was pretty sure we all had the same thought, that we wished we didn’t open the book. “Give me a lighter,” I let out.

“Didn’t I just shut that idea down?” Patrick yelled.
“We’ll set the book on fire real quick and then put the fire out, no one will ever know,” I exclaim.
“I really don’t like this idea,” Andrew argued.
“Dude, we don’t have a choice, we’re setting the book on fire and that’s that.”
“No you are not.”

It was at that moment in time I realized we weren’t the only four in the building and I wasn’t sure if I were okay with that or not. We all turned to see four girls in there early twenties standing before us. I was immediately drawn to the one in the middle, with the light brown hair, olive complexion, and red lips. I could feel her stare as I figured she was the one who just spoke.

“You are not setting that book on fire."