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

Then she gathered all her toiletries, some of her books and crafts, and shoes to put into her bags. She didn’t have to worry about liquids in her backpack; she wasn’t going to the airport.

Master Beau led her outside into the backyard. He pointed his wand to the center and whipped it around. Transparent colors formed and grew bolder by the second. A familiar shape formed, and Alyssa paid attention. Master Beau had created a helicopter.

“Whoa,” Alyssa said.

“This is my own helicopter that I bought a few months ago,” said Master Beau. “It even runs on magic and never runs out of it.”

“Cool. But why was it invisible before?”

“So no one could see me, of course.”

“Oh, right.”

He carried Alyssa’s suitcase as she climbed the ladder to the inside. She sat down and watched Master Beau point his wand at her suitcase. It unsolidified, thinning until it zoomed into the overhead compartment.

Alyssa placed her backpack under her seat and put her seatbelt on. Master Beau hopped into the pilot’s seat. He started the engine, and the helicopter lifted. But . . . sparkles surrounded Alyssa’s face. Her chest stung, and her muscles tightened. Looking out the window, she gasped. “Oh my god, what have I done?”

Her pupils had returned to black. She whimpered and whined. Her heart jackhammered inside her pained chest. Her mouth dried up. Breaths hurried out of her narrowed throat. Her toes and fingers tingled through her trembling hands and feet. Sweat spread throughout her entire body. Her stomach inflamed. She wanted to escape—or else she’d suffer . . . or die.

Master Beau turned to her, scowling and breathing through his gritted teeth.

“You monster!” Alyssa screamed. “You mean old monster!”

“Shut up!” he roared.

“How dare you put me under a spell!”

“I would do it again, except that those spells only work on people once in their lifetimes.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe the spell broke.”

“Go back to my house!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Please! I . . . I’m going to die if you don’t!”

“No! I don’t have time for crybabies, so be quiet! We are going straight to the Fiji Islands, and that’s final!”

“But—”

“Enough! I can’t keep this stupid helicopter on autopilot just because you had a panic attack!”

“But I want to go home!” squeaked Alyssa as tears watered her eyes.

She buried her face into her hands and sobbed. Her life couldn’t change. She couldn’t leave home forever. Thoughts of her friends, Hailey, Uncle Bruce, Kathleen, Donald, and even Alex wandered in her mind. How would Kathleen and Donald react to her absence, the power outage, and Hailey and Uncle Bruce sleeping? Without her, they’d freak out. She refused to imagine how much.

 

About a few hours had passed since Master Beau kidnapped Alyssa. She’d fallen asleep after crying for a long time. She opened her eyes and stretched. But she clapped her hands over her mouth. Magenta smoke swirled in front of the helicopter. Oh no. Master Beau wouldn’t fly into it, right?

“Okay, Alyssa, we’re about to go into that portal over there,” he said. “It’ll take us straight to Fiji. We’ll be going to this island called Yanowic. It’s inhabited by wizards.”

“What?” cried Alyssa.

“You heard. Once we get through, it’ll be Monday, March 22nd, at four-thirty a.m.”

“No, don’t—”

“Shut up! For the last time, we are not going back!”

And his words seemed to have meant it. The helicopter touched the smoke and entered it. The blue of the sky faded as the pink took over. Dizziness tingled Alyssa’s head and body as she watched the gas circle around her.

Her muscles tightened. Her heartbeats loudened in her chest, wrists, and forehead. She felt like bees had stung her stomach and created sharp pain. Within seconds, she’d be on the other side of the world.

A blue atmosphere revealed itself, erasing the smoky portal. Here it came—the Fiji Islands. The portal even shrank. Alyssa turned to the front; no way would she want to keep watching the swirl decrease in size.

Master Beau lowered the helicopter. Alyssa gazed out the window and eyed the cyan-colored Pacific Ocean, which splashed waves onto the whitish-beige beach. Palm trees stood tall, shadowing parts of the shore. But Master Beau turned away from it. Even if he landed there, Alyssa couldn’t flee. A boat wouldn’t even come to stop for her and take her home— not unless she had a parent or guardian with her as well as thousands of dollars.

Master Beau soared over a forest. Alyssa watched the helicopter descend. It landed near a building. What could be inside it, and what would Master Beau do to her there?

“Okay, Alyssa, time to get out.” Master Beau turned off the engine.

“No,” she said.

Master Beau disappeared and then appeared outside Alyssa’s door. He blasted it open with his wand and glared at her. “You do not refuse anything I demand! So either you get out, or I fill the helicopter with water while you’re locked inside!”

Alyssa opened her mouth and leaned back. She had never heard anyone threaten her with that level of danger. Wait—maybe there’d be a way to escape once Master Beau was busy. She stood up, though, and pulled her backpack from underneath her seat.

“Leave everything behind. You can take them later.”

“But—”

“Do as you’re told, McCarthy!” Master Beau grasped her wrist and lead her to the building. She might as well scream at it.

Strands of barbed wire surrounded the dark-gray stone building, creating a fence with prickly wires that could hurt someone. A giant black banner with a skull and crossbones in the center had been spread across the front of the building. The chimney let out black smoke in the shapes of skulls and even hissing serpents.

“I . . . I’m not going in there,” Alyssa said, her voice shaking.

“Yes, you are. Don’t be a baby. I wouldn’t bring you here for vacation.”

Alyssa remained silent.

“Let’s go!” Master Beau pulled Alyssa to another part of the fence. He pointed his wand at it, causing the strands of wire to drop. Then he and Alyssa walked inside, heading toward the front door. Alyssa’s chest stung as Master Beau opened the door and pulled her inside.

 

 

 

 

8

 

What happened behind the glass in the dimly lit hallway made Alyssa gasp. Men and women tested dark magic on rats, tarantulas, toads, and hermit crabs. Some rats had glowing-red eyes, which hinted to Alyssa that they had been put under spells. The red-eyed rats drank potions, giving them warts or suffocating them. Tarantulas flew in different directions based on those in which the testers’ wands pointed them. Toads squealed and cried loud enough that Alyssa could hear them as they experienced pain and torture. Hermit crabs turned into stone or flew back onto the counters and broke their shells.

Behind each counter floated computer monitors, scanning the workers’ progress from failure to success, with poor, satisfactory, and good in between. Most of them succeeded with their testing, according to the screens.

How obnoxious and disgusting, though! Alyssa had always hated animal testing, but this exceeded anything she’d ever seen before. Tears stung her eyes from that.

“All right there, Master Beau?” said a bald man with a British accent as he left the hallway from his right.

Alyssa turned to him.

“Hey, David,” said Master Beau.

“Are you sure you want just one child?” David asked.

“What do you mean?” asked Master Beau.

“Weakening and killing one child will not make you powerful enough to rule all of France,” David said.

“Where’d you find that out?” Master Beau asked.

“I hacked into a blocked Magic Carpet World Connections site about abusing dark magic and becoming an evil dictator,” said David. “It said that no wizard, no matter how powerful they are, can rule one country with weakening only one child who has a magical connection with him or her—unless it’s a small country.”

“So what I heard a few years ago was wrong?” asked Master Beau.

“Not at the time. The website also said that someone in the International Magic Control changed the satellite last week after another evil wizard ruled all of Vivanesia.”

“Not too far from here,” said Master Beau.

“You’ll need at least four or five children to make connections with,” said David. “That person in the IMC actually meant to block it, but it didn’t work, unlike the killing and memory-wiping spells.”

“Well, that’s good,” said Master Beau. “But where can I find more kids?”

“I’ll try to hack into another website as soon as I can to find out about that,” said David. “There’s also a new way to make connections overnight at most, so now you don’t have to wait several months. I’ll look into that for you too.”

“Really?” asked Master Beau.

“Yep,” said David.

      “Thank you,” said Master Beau.

“You’re welcome.” David walked back down the hallway direction from where he’d come from.

“All right, Alyssa, up to the prison room,” said Master Beau.

“No,” she said.

Footsteps thumped. The two turned to the sound. It grew louder, but Alyssa saw no one.

“Hello?” asked Master Beau. “Who’s there?”

A pointed tip stuck out and spun. It let out a light-blue ray that hit Master Beau. Alyssa watched his pupils glow blue.

“Alyssa, I shouldn’t be doing this,” Master Beau said.

She lifted her eyebrows. Master Beau must have gone under a spell.

“You’re going to let me go?”

“Yes. Go and find someone to take you back home.”

“Okay, thanks.” Alyssa turned to the wand that stuck out of the air while Master Beau ran away in tears. The air peeled itself and revealed a strange woman. Alyssa gasped.

“Sorry.” The woman slid her sheer hood off.

“What are you wearing?” asked Alyssa.

“An invisibility poncho. I snuck in here and put Master Beau under a spell to save you.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but please don’t tell anyone I did that. It’s illegal. Master Beau, his workers, and this building have charms around them to—”

“I know—to protect them from the police and government.”

“How’d you know?”

“A marble figure told me.”

“Let’s talk after we get out of here.” The woman stepped out of her poncho.

But Alyssa stood and remained mute.

“You need to trust me.”

“You . . . you’re trying to help me?”

“Yes. So do you trust me?”

Alyssa stayed silent.

“Do you?”

Alyssa swallowed and showed gritted teeth. “Uh . . . yeah.”

“Then let’s go.”

Alyssa followed her outside. The lady whipped her wand and broke the entrance wires. She led Alyssa out of the center.

“Was the marble figure you mentioned the same one I saw?” the woman flicked her waist-length golden hair behind her shoulders.

“Did he have a British accent?”

“Yes. He told me where to find you.”

“That was the one who told me about Master Beau. His name’s Simon.”

“I think that’s the one who signaled me. So anyway, I’m Isabelle Cunningham.”

“Hi, Ms. Cun—”

“Call me Isabelle.”

“I’m Alyssa, Alyssa McCarthy.”

“Yup. Simon told me your name and what you looked like.”

“Wow.” Alyssa turned to the helicopter. “My stuff is still in there. You don’t mind getting it, do you?”

“Not at