Hush

Getting rid of it

She was standing there in all her glory as I thanked the lord. Her silver gloved hands held the rope with pride as a silent wind let her jet black straight hair dance in joy. She was looking a little younger than the last time I saw her. It is a fact that I could not see her face that was hidden behind the silver mask but I could feel it from her voice.

"Ropie the reaper!" One of the men shouted as he ran away. The group was shrinking at a fast pace as some of them ran away and the others lied unconsciously. Once the coast was clear, she walked over to us and gave a high five to Hermes. I meant Raymond.

"Where were you, Babe?" Raymond asked.

"I was assigned to guard the portal."

"The portal?"

"Yeah, the one that connects this world to the other" She looked at my hand and said," I know that I do not have to explain it to you guys."

"No, No..." Andrews said with his cranky voice as he put more of he struggled to stand up.

Ropie was initially very angry when he said that he handed over the ring, that she gifted him, to Andrews. Hermes managed to calm her down as he talked softly with her. It was the first time I saw the rope become red in colour. I had heard that the rope could change its colour but I never believed in magic back when I heard of it. I did not talk much about the rope whenever we talked either.

"You never said that the rumours were true," I said as I looked at the rope in her hand. It shrunk to its normal size, once the army was down.

"You never asked dear."She winked at me and started walking backwards. She whispered a bye as she simply vanished with a pop sound. There were sparkles in the place where she stood. I and Hermes looked at each other as we tried to figure out Ropie's action.

We managed to escape the palace after some time and we met Stella and Rihanna near the Herosta River which was not far away from the palace. It was almost sunset when we reached there. Stella welcomed me with a hug while Rihanna simply shook hands with me and patted on my back. Hermes was tired by the time we reached there as he had to carry Andrews all throughout our journey. He simply dropped on the ground after placing Andrews on the ground. Andrews was asleep and his snoring was a little too disturbing.

"Did you disturb Lilly in any way?" Rihanna asked Raymond as she kept her hands on her hip.

"No," He breathed out the word.

"What did you do in Sagsa?"

"I confessed many things to her."

"What did you confess her about?"

Raymond started narrating the story and I stood behind Rihanna as I expected the 'Angry Rihanna' to be let out at any moment. I could see Rihanna's face reddening as he said that he was Raymond. Rihanna stomped towards her brother and slapped him harshly. I could not stop her since I was held by my sister. Stella explained that he deserved it for manhandling me in Sagsa.

"Tell me, Raymond, What is the real identity of Andrews?" She looked mischievously at his hand which held the cursed stone.

"Andrew Gonzalis"

"The librarian?"

"Yes,"

Andrew Gonzalis was the librarian at the National Library. He was a thirty-year-old man and a part-time activist of YAC. He wrote a lot of articles in support of YAC during the debates between YAC and YBC on 'whether 'The Iris of hell' must be handed over or not.

"Thanks, buddy," The old woman said.

"So, is it with his help you took some pages of the book?" Stella asked.

"No...Doesn't a brother has the rights to steal his sister's books?" Raymond removed his mask and smirked at his sister.

"Umm...what are we going to do with this?" Stella pointed at Hermes's hand.

And that is how a discussion on the topic started. All of us agreed to the fact that we had to get rid of it but none of us could come up with an appropriate idea. We were also tensed as we did not have an exact idea about how to return to Yoyomia without the help of the Kings. We bickered and discussed different scenarios. We could not find a way and all of us were slowly moving towards our only option; 'handover the stone and leave the country'.

We could not totally go with that plan. It was not only because of the devious words of the kings but also due to the fact that there was zero per cent assurance that they would let us go back peacefully. The sun had already set when all of us lied on the ground and looked at the sky. We were exhausted and almost out of ideas.

None of us ever thought that we would be in that situation. Everything looked surreal. Everything from successfully completing the mission to having to live with the cursed stone. My life changed its course in just a month. I found out that my longtime crush had an interest in me too. I found out that one of the most famous thieves across Yoyomia was my best friend's brother, more importantly, my crush. He too wanted to save our families from poverty. I found a different side of Stella. I talked with the librarian (who was infamous for his grumpiness). Most importantly, I started believing in curses.

Suddenly, there was a pop sound behind us and I sat up to see Ropie again. She looked a little annoyed as she folded her arms and knitted her eyebrows together.

"So here is the deal. Discard the stone and I will sparkle on you for you guys to transport to Yoyomia," She said.

Raymond looked at the stone in his hand. I was about to ask her how we could discard it when Stella snatched it from him and sliced off her hand. Her hand fell into the river. The blood diluted with the river and vanished in a few seconds. I ran to Stella and held her hand. She simply smiled at me and fainted in my hands.

"Stella..." I whimpered.