Book 1, Volume 1

Chapter 4

“Wow. Just look at it....”

“Looks like a mash-up of a modern gaming building with all that glass and a 5 story white stone hotel...”

“I really love the landscaping out front. Flower gardens, stone walkways, rock gardens, stone benches, waterways...”

“... the big golden sign on top of the building says “World of Abrynth” and look at the large royal purple banners flowing down the front...”

“... Rori, look... those statues... the tall one upfront...”

“... oh, she's dressed in a beautiful victorian dress, wearing a top hat, and has a parasol cane...”

“Over there mom, the parking entrance is just ahead...”

“... look at all the people... so many, the line goes around the building...”

“... looks like most of the parking spots are taken, we'll have to park in the last row...”

“Okay everyone, we're here!” Their mom cheerfully said as she turned off the van. “Everyone grab your belongings and group up outside the van.”

Buzzing with excitement and wonder, they exited the van with their belongings in tow and began walking towards the front of the building while admiring the views.

“Just look at all those excited faces...”

“You can hear the noisy chatter from here...”

“With so many people already in line, it's going to take us ages to get in... see Michael, this is why we told you to hurry up!” Rori said.

“Not to worry little Miss Clankenstein, we have golden tickets.” He told her with a wink. “That means we get to pass Boardwalk and enter the dragon...”

“Yeah, don't listen to Ogre boy or you'll lose some IQ points.” Cara took a large golden envelope out of her pack and waved it in front of the group. “Since we have winning tickets, we don't have to wait. We get to enter through the purple and gold door; it's only for lottery winners.” She said with a smile.

Everyone felt a great sense of relief knowing they wouldn't have to wait in such a huge line. They made their way across the stone pathways to the steps leading up to the front entrance and paused for a bit, double-checking that they had everything with them.

A broken-hearted sobbing voice caught their attention. They looked further up the steps to their left and saw a woman dressed in house cleaning clothes trying to comfort a young dark-haired girl. The young girl was dressed in old run-down clothes that seemed too short for her, clothes that she surely had outgrown.

The young girl's shoulders were down, arms dangling listlessly at her sides, and she was looking at the ground as her dark hair partially covered her lightly tanned face. Tears streaked down her cheeks as she did her best to keep from breaking down and crying.

“I'm sorry honey, but all the spots have been taken.” The young girl's mother said as she hugged her daughter, trying to ease her pain. The young girl wanted to tell her mom that it was okay, that she understood, but she was afraid that all that would come out of her mouth were sobs.

The group felt bad for the mother and daughter pair. The mother's eyes were watery. She continued to hug, soothe, and pat her daughter's back.

“Rori, isn't that Koko?” Sadie asked.

“Yes. I believe so.” Rori answered.

“Who's Koko?” Rori's mother asked.

“She's a girl from our school. She's in the same grade as Sadie and I. She spends most of her time alone in the library, losing herself in books... because of all the bad things that happened to her...” Rori said, looking at her mother.

“Bad things, what bad things?”

“You know mom... It happened over a year ago. It was in the newspaper. Hmm... You may have missed it because you and dad seemed focused on that story about some strange explosion that happened in the desert."

"Oh ya! I remember that... I still say 'it' was some type of covered up UFO incident, no way the government woul..." Her sister Cara was in the midst of saying.

"Focus! We're talking about Koko now; Anyways, her father was an abusive drunk. Anytime something went wrong in his life he'd blame them and hurt them... Koko has the cigarette burn marks on her arms to prove it.

But it got really bad a little over a year ago when he lost his job again. He got home raging drunk, started beating on her mom... Koko tried to stop him, but he was too strong. He kicked her knee, bones broke, and she hit her head on the table during the fall.

Her mother got up off the kitchen floor, saw Koko lying on the ground; her daughter's leg bent in the wrong direction, and a pool of blood forming on the ground where her head lay... her father standing over her, looking down at her broken and bloody body.

Her mother lost it. She grabbed a big kitchen knife off the counter, and stabbed him in the lower back, severing his spine. He dropped to the floor and passed out from the pain. Luckily the neighbors heard it all... they rushed in, saw all the blood and bodies on the ground and called the cops and ambulance.

The newspaper reported the incident and its aftermath. Her father became paralyzed from the waist down and was sent to jail. Her mother divorced him and works as a house cleaning lady to provide for them. And Koko walks with a permanent limp and has a scar on her head... as well as the other scars on her arms.”

Rori looked around at everyone, the sad story left them all teary-eyed and silent for a while. “Sadie and I greet her whenever we go to the library and see her there. We invite her to hang out from time to time, but she always declines...”

"Hmm... No doubt her heart is scarred as well..." Her mother softly said.

“Still, we'll keep trying... right Rori. I'm hopeful that one of these days she'll accept our invitation and join us.” Sadie said looking over at Koko and her mother.

“Then why not today?” Cara said with a determined look in her eyes. “Our suite has 8 pods, but there's only 7 of us. Let's not let that pod go to waste, let's invite her into our suite and into our gameplan.”

“Aye, that's a fine idea, Cara.” Her mother said. “If they agree to join us, I'll call to have the streaming contract faxed over and help them get that all straightened out. Let's all head over...”

“That sounds good. While you all are taking care of that, I'm going to head on over to that group of people over there... Aiden and Thomas are there. Let me know when its time to go in.” Michael said, then turned and walked on over to where his best friend's Aiden and Thomas were.