The Frights of Fiji by Sunayna Prasad (books to read for self improvement .txt) 📕

their sticks inside, lightening the liquid to a light caramel brown. They held the stick in for about three seconds and then drank the potion.

Air swept up from their feet to their heads like wind blowing from the ground. Mathias’s skin had paled, and his hair was gone. Isabelle had curly chestnut hair midway down her back. She also had freckles and a few pimples. They also wore the same clothes David and Clarissa wore.

“Shall we go find someone?” asked Mathias in the same voice and accent as David.

“Yes,” said Isabelle, who had the same voice and accent as Clarissa.

She and Mathias walked down the hallway but stopped at the end where one could only walk left or right.

“Where should we go?” asked Mathias.

“I don’t know,” said Isabelle.

“David, Clarissa, what are you two doing?” asked a strange man with a British accent.

“Seamus, don’t you have any work to do?” Master Beau popped his head out of his office door.

“Right, I forgot to practice the wart-making spell on those lobsters,” said Seamus.

“Go do that,” said Master Beau.

      Seamus walked down the left hallway.

“David, Clarissa, what can I do to help you?” asked Master Beau.

“Where’s your computer?” Mathias asked.

“You didn’t look up anything else on making magical connections to children?” asked Master Beau.

“I’ll do it now,” said Mathias.

“Go downstairs and do it,” said Master Beau.

“Okay,” said Mathias.

“Clarissa, I’m going to be taking a quick coffee break,” said Master Beau. “In the meantime, can you finish the ingredients to my potion?”

“What potion?” asked Isabelle.

“Oh, I never told you,” said Master Beau. “It’s called Expugnato potion. When Alyssa and the other four children I select drink this potion, they will be loyal to me and will accept everything I do to them, including harm.”

Alyssa gasped.

“They’ll be willing to sacrifice themselves to anything I send to destroy them, and then . . . my dream of being France’s dictator will come true.”

“Oh my god,” said Isabelle.

“I know. Isn’t it exciting?”

“Can I wait for you inside your potion room?” asked Isabelle.

“Sure.” Master Beau walked back into his office.

Alyssa’s screen divided into two; one side revealed Mathias walking in the basement, and the other showed Isabelle opening the potion room.

Isabelle strode inside, looking around at the shelves of various potions in plastic bottles and the labeled boxes of potion ingredients. Near the corner stood a large silver pot with lit buttons along the side and tubes on both ends leading up to a microwave and a blender. Isabelle strode toward it and leaned down at it. It was labeled “Brewbot 3000” and inside was a plum-colored liquid, as thick as spaghetti sauce. Isabelle whipped her wand around, which let out pink smoke. The potion evaporated into purple steam as the smoke clouded above it.

Alyssa turned to the screen with Mathias. He walked into the room with the brain-domination computer. The wires attached to it were limp on the floor. Mathias pointed his wand at it, sweat pouring down his cheeks.

But Master Beau threw the door open and glowered at Mathias. “David, what are you doing?”

Mathias turned to him. “I was trying to save—” He covered his mouth, and Master Beau strode over to him, still glaring.

“Who would you be trying to save?” he asked.

“No one,” Mathias rushed the words out of his mouth.

Master Beau took out his cell phone and texted someone. “Seamus is coming with Veriforce potion.”

“Why?”

“I suspect you’re not really David.”

“Yes, of course I am.”

Seamus appeared. “Hello, Master Beau.” He handed him a bottle of fizzy golden-yellow liquid.

Mathias held out his wand. “I don’t need it!”

“Amittere obiectum!” Master Beau zapped Mathias’s wand out of his hand.

Seamus grabbed him and held his back against his chest.

“Let go of me!” yelled Mathias.

Master Beau opened the bottle and squeezed Mathias’s nose. Mathias opened his mouth as Master Beau poured the potion down his throat.

“Are you really David Willis?” Master Beau asked.

“No,” Mathias answered.

“Who are you?”

“Mathias Williams.”

“And who are you trying to save?”

“Alyssa McCarthy.”

“I knew you weren’t David!” snarled Master Beau.

Mathias picked up his wand and ran out.

Alyssa turned to see the screen with Isabelle.

The potion was gone. Nothing remained in the pot. But Master Beau appeared with the Veriforce potion and gasped. “Clarissa, what are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Wait—are you really Clarissa Murphy?”

“Yeah, of course,” said Isabelle.

“We’ll see about that.” Master Beau grabbed Isabelle and held her against him. He squeezed her nose and poured the potion down her throat.

“What is your name?”

“Isabelle Cunningham.”

“Are you trying to save Alyssa McCarthy?”

“Yes.”

“I knew it!”

Isabelle held out her arms and disappeared outside, where Mathias leaned against a tree.

“Let’s drink the Normalla potion and get out of here,” said Isabelle.

The two poured the potion and drank it. Air swept from their feet to their heads and returned them to their true identities.

The screens disappeared, and Alyssa looked up, watching Isabelle and Mathias race each other toward her and Simon.

“Take your ponchos off,” said Isabelle.

Alyssa unzipped hers and peeled it off. Simon did the same thing.

“We need to get out of here before anything happens,” said Isabelle.

Simon followed Mathias into his tube, and Alyssa followed Isabelle into hers.

“I can’t believe what Master Beau did.” Alyssa put her seatbelt on. “Mathias didn’t even destroy the computer.”

“We’ll have to come back tonight.” Isabelle pressed the take-off button, making the tube lift into the air.

 

*      *      *      *

 

An hour had passed since everyone had left the dark magic center. They had consumed just sandwiches and veggie sticks at lunchtime. Now that everybody had cleaned up, he or she headed into the living room. Simon had finished eating earlier than the others, so he sat on a couch and listened to his WiPod.

“Simon?” Alyssa asked.

He took out his earbuds and turned to her. “Yes?”

“Can we see what Master Beau’s doing?”

“Oh, sure.” Simon picked up his tablet and flew out of the bedroom. Alyssa, Mathias, and Isabelle gathered around him as he turned on the device and opened his tracking app, where he selected the Video option.

Master Beau stood outside with David, Clarissa, and Seamus. “Do you two want to thank Seamus for waking you guys up with the Weckis weed?” he asked David and Clarissa.

They thanked Seamus.

“Seamus also bought an illegal app where you can search someone’s name, age, and address, and find out what they’ve been doing for up to the past week,” said Master Beau. “He found out online that if you want to rule an entire nation, every person you select must have interacted with your target within the past week. Otherwise, the connections won’t be strong enough and your power won’t work well. Now I already plan to kidnap Alyssa’s cousin, but now Seamus is going to read the names of the other kids, and then I’ll assign to each of who you’ll kidnap.”

Alyssa gulped.

“Okay, guys, the names of the other children are Jasmine Wilson, Destiny Cox, and Madison Jennings.”

“No,” squeaked Alyssa.

Then Master Beau assigned who’d abduct whom. David would take Jasmine, Clarissa would kidnap Destiny, and Seamus would get Madison.

“Did you remember to make the connections?” asked Clarissa.

“Uh huh,” said Master Beau. “I did it last night.”

“Well, at least we have those charms around us,” said Seamus. “So we can’t get arrested.”

“Aren’t there charms around your helicopter too?” asked Clarissa.

“Yes,” said Master Beau. “But the good news is that I’ve figured out how to make portals on land. I was practicing a lot last night.”

“We don’t know how to make them though,” said David.

“How about I show you all before I kidnap Alyssa’s cousin?” asked Master Beau. “We’ll hide somewhere and practice.”

“Where?” asked Clarissa.

“The middle of a national park would do,” said Master Beau. “But it’ll take several hours.”

“Good thing we can’t get jetlagged,” said Clarissa. “Half the other wizards in the world aren’t lucky about that.”

“So let’s disappear to New Jersey,” said Master Beau.

All four vanished.

“What the heck?” shrieked Alyssa. “They can’t do that!”

“They’ve already disappeared.” Simon closed his app.

“Can’t we stop them?” asked Alyssa.

“It’s illegal for wizards to disappear into other countries,” said Isabelle. “They have charms to protect themselves, but we can’t perform those charms on ourselves.”

“It’s very hard to do, and no one would ever teach anyone those charms,” said Mathias.

“So . . . we’re going to have to let them . . . hurt my cousin and everyone else?” Alyssa asked, her voice breaking.

“No,” said Isabelle. “When they come back, we’ll protect those girls.”

“Can’t you call your pilot?” asked Alyssa.

“We can’t leave you behind,” said Isabelle. “And even if we could leave the country, Master Beau and his workers can’t be seen by the police or government.”

Tears spilled from Alyssa’s eyes. “There’s got to be a way.”

“There isn’t.” Mathias shook his head. “We’re so sorry.”

Alyssa burst into tears. She ran into the bedroom and threw herself onto her bed. Tears soaked her arm as she covered her eyes with it.

Why did this have to happen? How was there nothing she could do? She wished that she could just find some way to overthrow Master Beau. She desired to have enough strength to break the wall. She wanted all this to stop. But it didn’t seem like this would end soon.

 

 

12

 

Fifteen minutes had passed since Alyssa had cried. Isabelle had offered her chamomile tea. She poured sugar out of her wand into a mug as Alyssa sat at the table. Then she created the teabag, boiling water, and a lemon and stirred them with a spoon.

“I really wish there were a way to stop Master Beau from kidnapping your cousin and friends,” said Isabelle.

“The government won’t make exceptions for emergencies?”

“The prime minister of Yanowic is very protected. No one’s allowed to see him unless they work for him.”

“Why?”

“In the past, Yanowic’s prime ministers have been lured into a lot of trouble by the citizens. So about fifteen years ago, a new law passed to only allow people who work for the prime ministers to see them.”

“Oh.”

“But once we find out that Master Beau and his workers have brought them to the dark magic center, we’ll take them and protect them here.”

“Are we going to be able to defeat Master Beau?”

“Well, I don’t like the idea of hurting him directly. But we’ll brainstorm some indirect ways to defeat him.”

Alyssa nodded and sipped her tea. She drank it for about twenty minutes and then headed into the bedroom.

Simon lay on his bed, listening to his WiPod. He turned to Alyssa, still wearing his earbuds. “Hello.”

“Hey.” Alyssa sat on her bed.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Sort of.”

“I have some ideas to keep you occupied and feel better at the same time. We could watch something funny on the Enchanted World Network. That’s the general term for our Internet. The Magic Carpet World Connections is