The Society of Imaginary Friends (Book 1 of The Conjurors Series)

Chapter 12

Back at the hotel, Valerie and Thai munched on some fruit that Chisisi had sent up while Cyrus wandered around the room.

"Is Tan okay? He seemed scared back there," Valerie said.

"I think so. When something is more than he can handle, he kind of retreats inside me for a while. He'll come out again when he's ready. But are you okay?" Thai asked.

"It turned my world around to realize that there will still be someone chasing me when I go to the Globe. What's waiting for me there is worse than what's chasing me here."

"But there you'll have your magic to protect you."

"And me," Cyrus added.

She looked out the window. The sun was already setting.

"Are you ready?" Thai asked.

"I want to thank Chisisi one more time before I go. I hope he isn't still upset. We were kind of rude before when he was trying to help us."

"Fine, I guess you're right. I didn't mean to offend him," Thai said, picking up the phone. "Hi, Amun, could you send Chisisi to our room? Oh, when? Okay, thanks." He hung up the phone. "Amun said that Chisisi was heading over to our room twenty minutes ago."

"What happened to him?" she asked. It wasn't right to leave without saying goodbye.

"Who knows? Whenever we don't need him, he pops out of nowhere. And now that we do call him, he's nowhere to be found. But we can't wait around any longer."

"He's right, Val. Let's get out of here before something else goes wrong," Cyrus added.

"Well, we're finally going to need these," Thai said, pulling the night vision goggles out of their backpacks.

Valerie grinned for the first time all day. It would be pretty cool to go all James Bond and sneak past the security on the Giza Plateau.

Rather than take the elevators downstairs and leave through the main entrance, she directed Thai and Cyrus to take the stairs, hoping that they would attract less attention. The minute she opened the door to the stairwell, a sour smell made her cover her nose. As they descended, the smell grew stronger, almost making her gag.

They were going down the last flight of stairs when she remembered where she had smelled that rancid odor before. "Thai, watch out, Venu's been here. That smell is his poison, I know it," she whispered, and fear glued her feet to the ground.

They both stopped, but it was completely silent in the stairwell. Thai then moved in front of her, murmuring, "Let's get out of here."

"Hurry up. Now is not the time to freeze up," Cyrus said urgently, and she forced herself to hurry down the last few stairs at top speed and burst out the exit door behind Thai.

"I can't believe he was that close," Thai said.

Valerie noticed something lying on the ground, covered in yellow slime. She knelt down to examine it, and her entire body quivered with horror. It was a blue cloth with gold embroidery that she had seen before. "It's that sash that Chisisi always wears," she said, struggling to keep the panic out of her voice.

"You're right. What happened?" Cyrus said. Before she could do more than blink, Cyrus vanished.

Thai yanked Valerie to her feet. "We have to get you out of here. Now."

"We can't leave without finding him! What if Venu really hurt him? You know what he's capable of!"

"We don't even know where to begin to look. I swear to you that I will not rest until I find Chisisi, but right now you need to get off this planet."