The Crystal Diary, Me [short novels to read TXT] 📗

onto the vibrating floor and reached down for one lone pencil that had strayed from its herd to the foot of my chair.

Then I walked toward the car door praying that God wouldn’t allow the rest of the crowd to be awakened by the opening. I stepped outside as quickly as I could then shut the door. I had a hard time trying to balance myself on the shaking outside of the car with one hand and holding my crystal up to the light with other. I was engulfed in darkness with only the moon’s timid light to guide me. At last I found a train handle to swing from and grasped it’s rusty metal bar for dear life. My body shook in the train made wind like a rag doll and nearly dissolved all my courage.

At last I realized that I had to get the code before dawn broke and reached down my shirt with my free hand to grab my crystal. At last I felt it and held it up to the silver light. Instead of being violet now it was a glowing red and inside my watering eyes could just barely make out the numbers 91119. I shoved the crystal back down my shirt and tried to write the numbers with one hand. After failing to do so several times I pulled myself back on the doorstep and pushed my way inside. I panted and nearly fell down from exhaustion as I walked past the sleeping people. I hoped that nobody saw me outside from their window and was planning to tell the conductor that I was an untrustworthy acrobat. Thankfully all the people in the car were asleep and not paying any attention. I felt my new legs begin to hurt and I limped over to my seat. I plopped into my seat and reached into my pocket to find the paper and the pencil missing. I wasn’t surprised and I don’t think you are either. After getting another stray pencil from its herd I sat down and copied the numbers down in the diary where I knew they would be safe. Afterwards I relocked it and decided that it would be wise never to open it again on this trip. I shoved the book down into the pack and zipped it up. I then let sleep swallow me up and believed that I would never have to do anything else on this train trip but relax.


Chapter 10
Nasty Surprise

Why I thought that I would be able to relax is beyond me now. After a few days on the train, I discovered a man that had gotten on a day after I did, seemed to enjoy following me everywhere. I didn’t think much about it at first but when it lasted for about a week it began to get on my nerves. He didn’t follow right behind me but he did follow a few steps behind. For example, if I was going to the snack bar to get a meal or a snack he would be in the line a few people away. The only real way that I would be able to ditch this hitch hiking creep was to walk through car after car then when he got too far behind I waited in the cars bathroom until he moved to the next car. Then I would go back to my seat and then I would wait until to tomorrow to start the whole wretched process over again.

Could he be Minet’s new henchman? Is he following me on purpose then sending her reports about me and where I would be going? Will Minet be waiting for me when I get off at the train station at Albany? I dreaded and stewed about it for the rest of the ride, fear accompanying me everywhere along with that Mohawk hair-do man. I wished the crystal would make me invisible and knew that Minet would be at the train station when I got there.

Thankfully the Mohawk man didn’t ride in the same car with me but in the one ahead. I needed to get off the train at the first stop announced. I needed to find some other way to get to Albany. I would never survive to get to Albany if this kept up. Minet, as famous as she was, had a headquarters in every city. I would have to find another way to Albany, I would have to use the subway or a plane or something that was fast, comfortable, and far away from Minet’s spies. I stared out the window watching the train speed past countryside, cities, towns and valleys. I heard the conductor shout:

“NEXT STOP HIGHWAY MARSH.” I looked for the Mohawk man but he was nowhere in sight. I yanked myself out of the cushion filled seat and put my pack on my shoulders and stood by the train door waiting for it to open. Once it did though everyone in line to go outside wanted to shut the door again. There stood Minet as wicked, beautiful and vicious as ever. Her evil face lit up when she saw me and pointed a machine gun at me.

“Come here Gwen darling,” Minet said with a sarcastic look in her eye. She cocked the gun and I stepped out with my hands over my head. She looked triumphant when she saw that the crystal was still hanging around my neck.

“Fred!” Minet called out walking me over to a waiting car. “ I caught the kid, you can come out now.” Mohawk Fred ran out with a pistol in each hand and shot a police man who came running over with a rifle. He finally reached the car area and watched the stunned crowd with both pistols drawn.

“ I should not have to do this Fred, I am practically a legend,” Minet informed. “I will watch the stupid crowd. You bind and gag her and shove her into the backseat. Then take a look through that backpack, it probably holds the diary. I will take care of the crystal.”

Mohawk Fred was way more obedient than Pete had been and shoved me to the asphalt. My scarred legs felt as though the wounds from my surgery had reopened again. Rough hands grasped my head and tied a blindfold around my eyes. It was the last thing that I saw for hours and fingers wrenched my mouth open. My lips felt like they were bleeding my entire mouth was on fire. I felt my hands being tied so tightly that I barely felt circulation in them. After what sounded like a grunt of satisfaction I was practically thrown into the car and rolled onto the floor.

The car door slammed and I heard things being thrown out of my pack. Sometimes whatever the articles were they were thrown against the window. I, in my blinded state tried time and time again to feel the knot in my binds but couldn’t. I tossed and turned in the bottom of the car floor but found no way to unbind myself. At last exhausted I gave up and realized that there was no way to escape Minet this time and that I would have to be as obedient to her as possible without turning evil.

I heard Minet order:

“ Ok, we found what we needed, the rest of the bag contents are clothes. It’s time to go and dispose of the little flea that we have to drag around.” I heard Minet open the driver’s side of the door and get inside while her new recruit from what I felt sat in the back seat I heard I loud click and wasn’t sure whether it was the seat belts or a gun. As soon as the car started it speed off way over the speed limit and I guessed that Minet was going one hundred miles an hour at least. She laid the horn on almost every minute and the ride was so fast and bumpy that I nearly passed out.

“So Gwen darling,” Minet yelled mockingly over the roar of cars pulling over and crashing. “Did you enjoy your little trip? Well I have a few questions I would like to ask you before you go to your mother.” I wanted to slap her face even though I knew that she would have killed me before I had the chance.

“Oh that’s right, I don’t need you after all! Your stupid diary will do the talking for you.” Minet hissed without knowing whether she was angry at me or happy that I would provide her with all the secrets that she had never been told.” At that moment I wanted to kill her. Mom and I gave this wretched woman a home and this is how she repays us? She would raid this country’s money and kill my dad and me. I hated her with all my strength just as I loved God with all my strength. Then I checked myself; hate was not from God, it was from the devil.

“Well Minet, what are you planning to do with her?” Her companion asked causally. Minet seemed too happy by her victory to be careful with whom she trusted.

“ First we will get the crystal off her neck and open the diary and read it.” Minet then remembered that she was still on a public street with four cops chasing her. “ Fred, fire the guns will you? We have a few gnats chasing us.” She didn’t seem the least bit worried though and the floor felt as though she had increased her speed every time Fred fired a gun.

Screeching tires, hot rubber, and the sound of glass breaking met my ears and I wondered if I would live through Minet Reginal‘s wild ride. Then another thought entered my mind.

Is she hoping to kill me during the ride in order to get rid of me? She has the diary and she could get the crystal off my dead body easily. Of what possible other use