Ok so, I wrote this alternative prequel to the 39 Clues series which happens a few months before the Clue Hunt (4 or 5 months before). Instead of having Amy and Dan living with Aunt Beatrice, I decided to add some more excitement into their lives. It might not be too good (and please forgive me for any gramatical/spelling mistakes I make, English isn't even my first language) but I hope you enjoy it! I'll post Chapter One for now, and if you guys want me to I'll post the next chapters. Chapter 2 is from Amy's point of view, Chapter 3 from Dan's point of view, Chapter 4 from Amy's point of view and so on. I'll include all other 39 Clues Teams later probably in Chapter 5, which will take place after the Clue Hunt. Thanks and I hope you like it!
CHAPTER ONE
“Rise and shine sleepyhead,” Arthur Cahill said as he shook his only son, Dan, awake. Dan rolled over sleepily and buried his head in his pillow without even bothering to acknowledge his father. “Come on, you know we have a plane to catch there’s no time to lose,” Arthur insisted firmly. After a few moments, though still not fully awake, Dan managed to get out of bed with a groan.
“Why do you always book the earliest flights?” he complained.
“Well let’s see um… they’re cheaper for one. And it’s easier to leave the house with these big suitcases without arousing suspicions at 4:00AM than in plain daylight. The neighbors will never have the chance to ask where we’re going.”
“Couldn’t we just say we’re going on holidays?”
“And never come back? I don’t think so. We’ll just leave them wondering why we mysteriously disappeared for a few days and after a while they won’t even remember we were ever here.”
“Ugh, why can’t we ever settle down somewhere for more than two months?” Dan grumbled annoyed.
“You know why,” Arthur replied with a serious yet sympathetic look at his son. Dan did know, but that didn’t take away the fact he was tired of always jumping from one country to another without ever getting a chance to have a stable life. For as long as he could remember, he and his father had been traveling all over the world to locations as remote as Indonesia or Turkey. They never stayed anywhere for more than a couple of months –three or four at most- before another threat aroused. The story had been explained to him over and over again, but Dan always had more questions, more doubts. His endless curiosity was never satisfied with his father’s vague answers, but he had come to learn it was of no use to keep asking.
Arthur had been part of some secret society, the Vespers he called them, but had left after he began to realize some of the things his fellow companions were up to and to understand the Vesper philosophy. For some reason he hadn’t agreed with the Vesper’s ways so he had walked out; and it had cost him dearly. The Vespers had considered him a traitor and had made it their goal to eliminate him, therefore avoiding any of the information Arthur possessed about them to leak out to enemies, and of course taking their sweet vengeance on him while they were at it. Killing two birds with one stone. What these people had been doing that had appalled his father so much, what information he possessed or what enemies he was supposedly going to tell this information to, Dan had no idea. He had often speculated, his imagination running wild causing him to believe his father was a CIA super spy one day and a member of some extremist terrorist group the next. But what he never got were real answers. He just knew they had to keep moving, keep traveling from one continent to the next so that the Vespers wouldn’t find them. Switching locations as soon as his father gained the slightest bit of evidence Vespers were in the city. Buying decoy plane tickets and flying to several different countries before reaching their final destination in order to make them harder to trace. It was an international manhunt and Dan had been caught in the middle of it.
Sure, it was cool to get to see so much of the world and meet so many people, but it was also hard to leave a place every time he had finally settled in and made friends. He was always the new kid in school, always struggling to remember everyone’s names, where the bathroom was or his new locker combination; in those schools that even had lockers. After a while, all the different languages started to mix up in his head and he couldn’t tell Greek apart from Portuguese. It was frustrating to spend Christmas day sleeping on the floor of some airport because their flight had been cancelled due to a snow storm. It was annoying to not be able to buy all the cool stuff he wanted because all his belongings had to fit in a single suitcase he would be able to carry around. And most of all it was depressing he didn’t have a proper place to call home.
“Yeah, I know,” Dan said quietly, and made his way to the bathroom.
An hour later they were standing in Presidente Juscelino Kubitschek International Airport, Brasilia’s main airport. They had already checked in their suitcases and found their gate, but their flight was not scheduled to leave for another hour.
“Dad can I just go to that candy store over there? I’m bored. And hungry.”
“Sure go ahead but don’t take too long and be careful,” Arthur replied, and then added with a smile “oh and remember to buy your nice daddy some goodies while you’re there.”
His son gave him a double thumbs up and ran off. Arthur sighed and decided now would be a good time to send his wife, Hope, a message. He took out his cell phone and wrote a brief explanation:
Might not be able to contact you for a couple of days. We’re on the move again but everything’s going fine. We’ll call you when we reach our next destination. Say hi to Amy and your mother from me. AJT.
He knew Hope would understand. After seven years she had gotten used to the idea that her husband was running around the world with her barely eleven-year-old son. He doubted Dan would even remember what his mother and sister looked like hadn’t they insisted on keeping in touch via Skype. Of course they could never tell Amy and Hope where they were, it would just put them in unnecessary danger and if Vespers intercepted the communication… well, moving day for him and Dan would come much faster than it usually did too.
When their house had been burnt down in a deliberately set fire all those years ago, Arthur hadn’t been sure what to think. Had it been the other Cahills –including Isabel Kabra, Eisenhower Holt and Alistair Oh- who had earlier payed them a not-so-friendly visit and left furiously after he and Hope had refused to give them the document they were so desperately looking for? Or had it been the Vespers that had finally tracked him down? He had been lost in a sea of endless fears and suspicions and what was worse – he had though Amy and Hope had died in the fire. So he had done the only thing he could think of: he had taken the only piece of family he had left, his four- year-old son Dan, and fled the country. He couldn’t allow the Vespers to find him again or to hurt or kill Dan like they had his daughter and wife. He had put his grief, rage and thirst for vengeance aside to concentrate on keeping Dan and himself safe and alive. And the best way to do that was to hide. That had been the start of their travels, their constant moving and running. After about a year, he had found out Hope and Amy were alive when he had come across an article his wife-a passionate archaeologist- had recently written about some excavation taking place in Mexico. Desperate to believe it was true, he had gotten in contact with Hope immediately to find out to his great joy that both she and Amy had escaped the fire and were now living at Hope’s mother Grace’s mansion in Attleboro. They too, had believed he and Dan had died in the fire and were shocked to find out they were very much alive.
By then it had been too late to go home. Returning to Massachusetts would make it entirely too easy for the Vespers to get to him and his family once more. And it would endanger Hope and Amy. The problem was, he couldn’t send Dan home with his mother and sister either, because the Vespers were well aware he had survived the fire and would just as happily take him and torture him to punish Arthur, or else uses him as bait to lure him to them. He really felt sorry he had dragged Dan into all of this, but it had been his only choice at the moment. He hated seeing his son’s disappointed face whenever he came home from school to find his father packing, ready to move again. He knew a kid needed a stable environment to grow up in, and that it was always hard for him to keep up with everything going on at school when he arrived in the middle of the semester out of the blue. But Arthur’s main priority was to keep him safe - no matter what.
A stash of candy was suddenly dropped into his lap and he looked up to see Dan grinning and holding up an odd looking lollipop.
“Can you believe this? A parrot shaped lollipop! And guess what the stick is made of? Well it’s not a stick at all! It’s chocolate! And best of all, see all these different colors on the parrot? Well the guy at the counter told me each of them has a different flavor. The pink is strawberry, blue is cotton candy and yellow is vanilla. Isn’t it epic?” he said this so fast and in such a high-pitched voice Arthur suspected he had probably already eaten a whole bunch of candy while in the store and given himself a sugar rush.
“Sure, it sounds… delicious. Actually I wouldn’t say that, it’s more like…uh… exotic! That’s the word,” Arthur replied.
“Yeah well, call it whatever you want, it’s still awesome. Where are we going again?” Dan asked.
“We’re flying to Egypt first, then we’re moving on to Poland and we’ll land in Norway in two days time.”
“Oh. Is Norwegian sort of like Danish?” Dan inquired. “Well I don’t know how to speak either, but I think they’re alike. Yeah, they must be similar. Why? Do you miss Copenhagen that much?”
“Nah, but I hate Danish. It’s too complicated,” he responded before sitting down next to his father. “I should love it though. DAN-ish, people in Denmark must really love me to name their official language after me,” he added as an afterthought.
“Well I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. And easy on that candy, I’m betting you already ate half the store before you were done chatting with the guy in the counter.”
“How do you always know,” Dan commented with a mischievous grin.
Arthur ruffled his son’s hair and checked the time on his watch. “Come on, let’s get in line. They’re about to start boarding.”
THANKS FOR REAADING! PLEASE COMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! ALL FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!
- Reply
- Signatures
- My Posts
- Jump to page: 1, 2, 3 ... 5, 6, 7
- Next Page ›
- Last Page »
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 6:01 am on February 11, 2012
Login to like
it.
39 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Really awesome keep writing!!
Branch: Lucian
Rank: Black Mamba
Saladin League
Come to the Dark side, Peeta made cookies
Pls visit this link:
http://www.the39clues.com/messageboard/show/10001
Posted at: 5:09 pm on February 12, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Awesome story.
I’m ArrivingWinning15, but you can call me Aaron. Or Mr. Konichiwa! In fact, call me whatever you like.
Lucian Counciller - Spy Rep
Cool Guy
Posted at: 5:24 pm on February 13, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Very nice EmeraldMaze45, nice writting!
You are doing amazing for having English as your second language.....what is your first?
Writting Contest Judge #3
You are doing amazing for having English as your second language.....what is your first?
Writting Contest Judge #3
♫“Nothing to run from is worse than something.”
“We have nothing, if not belief.”
♫Faith, Trust, and a little Pixie dustnever hurtanybody
GU
Posted at: 8:42 pm on February 13, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@CobraAzure40: Spanish! But I like English much better :)
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 12:17 pm on February 14, 2012
Login to like
it.
5 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Thanks to everyone that read Chapter One and/or commented!! Here's chapter two, Amy's POV. Hope you like it!
CHAPTER TWO
The last thing Amy Cahill wanted to do this beautiful Friday morning was go to school. The weather was so surprisingly nice for March that it made her want to grab a good book and sit outside in the grass to read, bathed in sunlight and with the soft breeze in her hair. She would open up that fascinating novel she had been reading yesterday and loose herself between its pages, travelling to faraway places like Russia or Australia. She would climb ancient pyramids in Mexico and ride an elephant through the busy streets of Delhi. She would buy precious jewels in a Turkish market and watch the sunset in the coast of Italy. But most importantly of all she would be able to forget her worries.
What was worrying her right now was her grandmother, Grace. She was so terribly sick. When Amy had first found out Grace had cancer, she had been terrified. How could strong, confident Grace be sick? What if she got worse? Or, what if, in the worst of cases, Grace died? But she had been reassured by both her mother and Grace herself. They had told her it would all be alright, that Grace would be getting her chemotherapy and that she’d get better soon. And Amy had believed them. But she wasn’t a little kid anymore-she would be turning fourteen next month- and she could see that Grace wasn’t getting any better. In fact, she seemed to be getting worse.
“Amy! Hurry up!” her mother called from downstairs. “You’re going to be late to school young lady!”
“I’m coming! I’m coming!” Amy answered exasperated. She ran downstairs taking two steps at a time and almost barreled into her mother, who was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. Hope regarded her fondly.
“Come on, off you go or you’ll miss the school bus,” she said affectionately, and kissed Amy’s forehead, ushering her towards the door.
“Is Grace-“Amy started.
“She’s sleeping. Now don’t you be worrying about her, she’s fine. Just concentrate on your classes all right?”
“Mom you know she’s not fine. She-“
“Amy. Please,” her mother cut her off.
“But-“
“But nothing, off you go come on. Have a good day sweetie,” she said as she pushed Amy out the front door.
No matter what her mother had told her, Amy was still completely distracted in class. Her classmates found it really odd how Amy hadn’t raised her hand even once in the whole class. And it was history. Everyone knew Amy was a total history buff. But today Amy was far away, lost in her own thoughts. Now she really wished she could disappear into one of her books. How she envied her brother, Dan, traveling around the world with her father all the time instead of being stuck in the same old boring school every single day. She didn’t know where they were most of the time, but she always got postcards for Christmas and her birthday from places as far away as China or Germany. She hadn’t ever even left the country, let alone the continent. The farthest she had ever been from home was Miami, when she was six or seven, and she only had a vague memory of the trip. She would trade her life for her brother’s any day. He didn’t understand how lucky he was, getting to see the world’s most beautiful cities, historical landmarks and famous sites, he was too much of a dweeb to appreciate that. Amy had no idea why they wouldn’t come home, though. No one explained, no matter how often she asked, and she found that really annoying. Didn’t dad and Dan care about them enough? Weren’t they interested in visiting, in taking a break from their travelling even if only for a few days? Why did they even travel so much in the first place? She wanted to see her father, really see him face to face, not through a computer screen on Skype. She wanted to be able to hug him and sit down next to him by the fireplace to warm up on Christmas day. But what she wanted never seemed to matter.
“Amy can you answer the question please,” Mr. Haney’s irritated voice cut through her thoughts like a blade.
“Um… could…could y-you re-repeat the question p-p-please,” she stammered, feeling herself blushing and her cheeks burning.
Mr. Haney sighed. Usually Amy was such a dedicated and enthusiastic student it was a miracle if anyone else got to answer a question in class, but lately she seemed distracted. “I was asking whether you knew who Hannibal was.”
“He…he w-w-was the Carthaginian m-m-military commander who fought the Romans at th-th-the b-battle of Zama right?” Amy stuttered.
“Yes that’s correct Amy thank you.”
Amy sighed, relieved yet terribly embarrassed, feeling all of her classmates’ eyes on her. Why did she always have to make such a fool of herself?
When Amy got home after school she was so tired she was ready to crash in the first place she found and sleep forever. But the moment she walked through the front door she heard her mother talking in the living room and it took her a split second to realize she was talking to dad and Dan. She hurried into the large room and sat down next to Grace and her mother, who were on the couch facing a laptop which was resting on the small coffee table. Her father and brother’s faces filled up the screen. They were sitting on a carpeted floor, with their backs to a cozy looking fireplace.
“Hey there!” Dan said when he saw her.
“Hi, how are you guys doing?” she asked.
“We’re fine,” Arthur answered, “just a bit tired after a rather, err, eventful flight.” He and Dan exchanged knowing glances and Amy felt oddly left out. It was as if they were exchanging some sort of inside joke she hadn’t been let in on.
“Everything alright?” Grace asked sharply. Amy could never shake off the feeling they all knew something she didn’t. Maybe she had read too many books, but sometimes –just sometimes- it seemed to her like there was something more to their traveling than just plain leisure. And it was at moments like these, when Grace seemed to get uneasy or tense over the slightest little things that Amy wondered if her suspicions could really be right.
“Oh yes, quite fine. We’re okay. Situation normal,” Arthur said, but Amy couldn’t help noticing how Dan shifted restlessly. “So how’s everything going over there?” he asked, trying to break the tension.
“Great,” Hope said, “glad the weekend’s finally here.”
“How are you doing Grace?” Dan piped up. This comment brought Amy’s momentarily forgotten worries about her grandmother’s health back to her, and she leaned in as if to hear Grace’s answer better.
“Oh perfectly well, stop fussing over me. I think I’ve lived far longer than any of you, I know how to take care of myself.”
Dan seemed content with this answer but it didn’t satisfy Amy. Her brother didn’t know Grace half as well as she did, and he didn’t hear her coughing late at night.
They talked for a while more, until Hope turned to Amy and said “Honey why don’t you go and take a shower, you look tired.” Amy’s alarms instantly started blaring. For some reason, mom wanted to talk about something she didn’t want Amy to hear. But what? Did it have to do with dad and Dan’s travels? Grace’s health? Some other completely unrelated thing? She realized they were all still staring at her, waiting for her answer.
“Um sure, bye dad, Dan.”
“See you later,” Dan answered.
“Actually Dan you should head to bed too, it’s getting late and you haven’t even showered yet,” Arthur put in. So they didn’t want Dan to hear it either. Her brother hesitated for a second, and Amy wondered if he was having the same thoughts as she was.
“Okay,” he said slowly, “night everyone.” Dan stood up and left. She heard a door close, but she had a feeling her little brother would be behind it, his ear pressed to the keyhole. So why shouldn’t she do the same?
“Well bye,” Amy said briefly and she, too left in a hurry. Once she left the living room, she closed the door and crouched down to press her ear to the keyhole, straining to hear every word. There was a heavy silence for a few seconds.
“Eventful flight?” Grace broke the silence.
“Yeah well, little encounter with our buddies in one of our connecting flights. Not the flight to our final destination, mind you. We lost them in the airport. They have no idea where we went to next, which is to say, where we are now,” Arthur explained.
“What happened?” her mother sounded concerned, almost scared.
“Nothing much,” Arthur said simply, “we didn’t even know those guys were Vespers until we were halfway there. They obviously knew who we were; it wasn’t a coincidence we all ended up together in the same plane.”
“You haven’t answered my question Arthur. What happened?” her mother’s tone was scaring Amy now, and she had to resist the urge to barge into the room demanding explanations. Vespers? Who in the world were they?
Her father sighed and was silent for a couple of seconds before answering. “Those guys were watching us, quite pointless in my opinion since there wasn’t anywhere we could run to, we were on a plane after all and we weren’t about to jump out. It was Dan who first noticed them, good thing he’s observant. When they realized we had spotted them one came over, he leaned close to me and uttered a rather nasty threat. Apparently he had managed to smuggle poison into the plane. It was just lovely.”
“Arthur please, there’s nothing lovely about poison. Are you sure neither of you ate or drank anything while on the plane that-“
“I’m sure, Hope don’t worry. Dan just drank Coke and ate some candy he had bought himself at the airport, and I didn’t eat anything at all.”
“And how do you know the Vespers didn’t get their hands on that candy before Dan bought it?” Hope shot back sharply.
“I’m pretty sure they don’t go around poisoning every bag of Skittles in the airport just in case Dan feels like buying some. I didn’t let him eat or drink anything else after I found out about the poison anyways, and I made him throw all of his food away as soon as we got off the plane and away from those guys. Thankfully he had already eaten the parrot…”
“Excuse me?”
“Parrot. Parrot shaped lollipop, with chocolate. And different flavors. The highlight of Dan’s day, you should have seen his face.”
“Okay whatever, so what happened after he threatened you?” Hope inquired.
“Well the guy went back to his seat. There was a Vesper on each side of the aisle ready to grab us when the plane landed, which complicated things quite a bit. They only watched us for the rest of the flight, but the threat had been enough to get Dan anxious, which made an hour sitting next to him seem like three. Poor fellow, I didn’t even let him go to the bathroom, I didn’t want him out of my sight with Vespers around. So when the flight landed I still had no idea what we were going to do, but then I saw this old lady struggling to get her nice big bag out of the overhead compartment and something went on in my brain like a light bulb. I leaned over to help her get the bag out and then brought it down in the perfect angle, backwards and a bit to the left, right were the Vesper was standing and hit him straight in the stomach. He stumbled backwards and well, you know how cramped planes are, everyone behind him started falling and pushing each other; it was mayhem. Dan found it awfully funny though, despite the situation.”
“And what about the other Vesper? What did you do with him?” Grace put in.
“Well, since we had to wait another couple of minutes before they opened the plane doors and we could get out, I just told Dan to get ready to run as soon as we were able to leave the plane. The other guy of course came over and grabbed Dan by the neck. Now there was something about a Vesper half choking my son I didn’t like, so I just punched him straight in the face and Dan managed to wriggle free. Then Dan grabbed someone’s briefcase and whacked the Vesper with it hard. The flight attendant obviously noticed the commotion, seeing as we were near the front of the airplane, and came over to…well I don’t know what in the world she was planning to do, but the doors had been opened and Dan and I just pushed everyone out of our way and ran out of there as fast as we could.”
“Oh why must you two always get into trouble…?” Hope muttered. Amy was shocked. It sounded like her father had just described a scene from a movie or some action novel, but there was something in the way he told it that made Amy believe him. Had he and Dan really been in that situation? Who were these Vesper guys? What did they want? There were dozens of questions running around her head, threatening to burst out, giving her a headache. What kind of madness was her family involved in?
CHAPTER TWO
The last thing Amy Cahill wanted to do this beautiful Friday morning was go to school. The weather was so surprisingly nice for March that it made her want to grab a good book and sit outside in the grass to read, bathed in sunlight and with the soft breeze in her hair. She would open up that fascinating novel she had been reading yesterday and loose herself between its pages, travelling to faraway places like Russia or Australia. She would climb ancient pyramids in Mexico and ride an elephant through the busy streets of Delhi. She would buy precious jewels in a Turkish market and watch the sunset in the coast of Italy. But most importantly of all she would be able to forget her worries.
What was worrying her right now was her grandmother, Grace. She was so terribly sick. When Amy had first found out Grace had cancer, she had been terrified. How could strong, confident Grace be sick? What if she got worse? Or, what if, in the worst of cases, Grace died? But she had been reassured by both her mother and Grace herself. They had told her it would all be alright, that Grace would be getting her chemotherapy and that she’d get better soon. And Amy had believed them. But she wasn’t a little kid anymore-she would be turning fourteen next month- and she could see that Grace wasn’t getting any better. In fact, she seemed to be getting worse.
“Amy! Hurry up!” her mother called from downstairs. “You’re going to be late to school young lady!”
“I’m coming! I’m coming!” Amy answered exasperated. She ran downstairs taking two steps at a time and almost barreled into her mother, who was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. Hope regarded her fondly.
“Come on, off you go or you’ll miss the school bus,” she said affectionately, and kissed Amy’s forehead, ushering her towards the door.
“Is Grace-“Amy started.
“She’s sleeping. Now don’t you be worrying about her, she’s fine. Just concentrate on your classes all right?”
“Mom you know she’s not fine. She-“
“Amy. Please,” her mother cut her off.
“But-“
“But nothing, off you go come on. Have a good day sweetie,” she said as she pushed Amy out the front door.
No matter what her mother had told her, Amy was still completely distracted in class. Her classmates found it really odd how Amy hadn’t raised her hand even once in the whole class. And it was history. Everyone knew Amy was a total history buff. But today Amy was far away, lost in her own thoughts. Now she really wished she could disappear into one of her books. How she envied her brother, Dan, traveling around the world with her father all the time instead of being stuck in the same old boring school every single day. She didn’t know where they were most of the time, but she always got postcards for Christmas and her birthday from places as far away as China or Germany. She hadn’t ever even left the country, let alone the continent. The farthest she had ever been from home was Miami, when she was six or seven, and she only had a vague memory of the trip. She would trade her life for her brother’s any day. He didn’t understand how lucky he was, getting to see the world’s most beautiful cities, historical landmarks and famous sites, he was too much of a dweeb to appreciate that. Amy had no idea why they wouldn’t come home, though. No one explained, no matter how often she asked, and she found that really annoying. Didn’t dad and Dan care about them enough? Weren’t they interested in visiting, in taking a break from their travelling even if only for a few days? Why did they even travel so much in the first place? She wanted to see her father, really see him face to face, not through a computer screen on Skype. She wanted to be able to hug him and sit down next to him by the fireplace to warm up on Christmas day. But what she wanted never seemed to matter.
“Amy can you answer the question please,” Mr. Haney’s irritated voice cut through her thoughts like a blade.
“Um… could…could y-you re-repeat the question p-p-please,” she stammered, feeling herself blushing and her cheeks burning.
Mr. Haney sighed. Usually Amy was such a dedicated and enthusiastic student it was a miracle if anyone else got to answer a question in class, but lately she seemed distracted. “I was asking whether you knew who Hannibal was.”
“He…he w-w-was the Carthaginian m-m-military commander who fought the Romans at th-th-the b-battle of Zama right?” Amy stuttered.
“Yes that’s correct Amy thank you.”
Amy sighed, relieved yet terribly embarrassed, feeling all of her classmates’ eyes on her. Why did she always have to make such a fool of herself?
When Amy got home after school she was so tired she was ready to crash in the first place she found and sleep forever. But the moment she walked through the front door she heard her mother talking in the living room and it took her a split second to realize she was talking to dad and Dan. She hurried into the large room and sat down next to Grace and her mother, who were on the couch facing a laptop which was resting on the small coffee table. Her father and brother’s faces filled up the screen. They were sitting on a carpeted floor, with their backs to a cozy looking fireplace.
“Hey there!” Dan said when he saw her.
“Hi, how are you guys doing?” she asked.
“We’re fine,” Arthur answered, “just a bit tired after a rather, err, eventful flight.” He and Dan exchanged knowing glances and Amy felt oddly left out. It was as if they were exchanging some sort of inside joke she hadn’t been let in on.
“Everything alright?” Grace asked sharply. Amy could never shake off the feeling they all knew something she didn’t. Maybe she had read too many books, but sometimes –just sometimes- it seemed to her like there was something more to their traveling than just plain leisure. And it was at moments like these, when Grace seemed to get uneasy or tense over the slightest little things that Amy wondered if her suspicions could really be right.
“Oh yes, quite fine. We’re okay. Situation normal,” Arthur said, but Amy couldn’t help noticing how Dan shifted restlessly. “So how’s everything going over there?” he asked, trying to break the tension.
“Great,” Hope said, “glad the weekend’s finally here.”
“How are you doing Grace?” Dan piped up. This comment brought Amy’s momentarily forgotten worries about her grandmother’s health back to her, and she leaned in as if to hear Grace’s answer better.
“Oh perfectly well, stop fussing over me. I think I’ve lived far longer than any of you, I know how to take care of myself.”
Dan seemed content with this answer but it didn’t satisfy Amy. Her brother didn’t know Grace half as well as she did, and he didn’t hear her coughing late at night.
They talked for a while more, until Hope turned to Amy and said “Honey why don’t you go and take a shower, you look tired.” Amy’s alarms instantly started blaring. For some reason, mom wanted to talk about something she didn’t want Amy to hear. But what? Did it have to do with dad and Dan’s travels? Grace’s health? Some other completely unrelated thing? She realized they were all still staring at her, waiting for her answer.
“Um sure, bye dad, Dan.”
“See you later,” Dan answered.
“Actually Dan you should head to bed too, it’s getting late and you haven’t even showered yet,” Arthur put in. So they didn’t want Dan to hear it either. Her brother hesitated for a second, and Amy wondered if he was having the same thoughts as she was.
“Okay,” he said slowly, “night everyone.” Dan stood up and left. She heard a door close, but she had a feeling her little brother would be behind it, his ear pressed to the keyhole. So why shouldn’t she do the same?
“Well bye,” Amy said briefly and she, too left in a hurry. Once she left the living room, she closed the door and crouched down to press her ear to the keyhole, straining to hear every word. There was a heavy silence for a few seconds.
“Eventful flight?” Grace broke the silence.
“Yeah well, little encounter with our buddies in one of our connecting flights. Not the flight to our final destination, mind you. We lost them in the airport. They have no idea where we went to next, which is to say, where we are now,” Arthur explained.
“What happened?” her mother sounded concerned, almost scared.
“Nothing much,” Arthur said simply, “we didn’t even know those guys were Vespers until we were halfway there. They obviously knew who we were; it wasn’t a coincidence we all ended up together in the same plane.”
“You haven’t answered my question Arthur. What happened?” her mother’s tone was scaring Amy now, and she had to resist the urge to barge into the room demanding explanations. Vespers? Who in the world were they?
Her father sighed and was silent for a couple of seconds before answering. “Those guys were watching us, quite pointless in my opinion since there wasn’t anywhere we could run to, we were on a plane after all and we weren’t about to jump out. It was Dan who first noticed them, good thing he’s observant. When they realized we had spotted them one came over, he leaned close to me and uttered a rather nasty threat. Apparently he had managed to smuggle poison into the plane. It was just lovely.”
“Arthur please, there’s nothing lovely about poison. Are you sure neither of you ate or drank anything while on the plane that-“
“I’m sure, Hope don’t worry. Dan just drank Coke and ate some candy he had bought himself at the airport, and I didn’t eat anything at all.”
“And how do you know the Vespers didn’t get their hands on that candy before Dan bought it?” Hope shot back sharply.
“I’m pretty sure they don’t go around poisoning every bag of Skittles in the airport just in case Dan feels like buying some. I didn’t let him eat or drink anything else after I found out about the poison anyways, and I made him throw all of his food away as soon as we got off the plane and away from those guys. Thankfully he had already eaten the parrot…”
“Excuse me?”
“Parrot. Parrot shaped lollipop, with chocolate. And different flavors. The highlight of Dan’s day, you should have seen his face.”
“Okay whatever, so what happened after he threatened you?” Hope inquired.
“Well the guy went back to his seat. There was a Vesper on each side of the aisle ready to grab us when the plane landed, which complicated things quite a bit. They only watched us for the rest of the flight, but the threat had been enough to get Dan anxious, which made an hour sitting next to him seem like three. Poor fellow, I didn’t even let him go to the bathroom, I didn’t want him out of my sight with Vespers around. So when the flight landed I still had no idea what we were going to do, but then I saw this old lady struggling to get her nice big bag out of the overhead compartment and something went on in my brain like a light bulb. I leaned over to help her get the bag out and then brought it down in the perfect angle, backwards and a bit to the left, right were the Vesper was standing and hit him straight in the stomach. He stumbled backwards and well, you know how cramped planes are, everyone behind him started falling and pushing each other; it was mayhem. Dan found it awfully funny though, despite the situation.”
“And what about the other Vesper? What did you do with him?” Grace put in.
“Well, since we had to wait another couple of minutes before they opened the plane doors and we could get out, I just told Dan to get ready to run as soon as we were able to leave the plane. The other guy of course came over and grabbed Dan by the neck. Now there was something about a Vesper half choking my son I didn’t like, so I just punched him straight in the face and Dan managed to wriggle free. Then Dan grabbed someone’s briefcase and whacked the Vesper with it hard. The flight attendant obviously noticed the commotion, seeing as we were near the front of the airplane, and came over to…well I don’t know what in the world she was planning to do, but the doors had been opened and Dan and I just pushed everyone out of our way and ran out of there as fast as we could.”
“Oh why must you two always get into trouble…?” Hope muttered. Amy was shocked. It sounded like her father had just described a scene from a movie or some action novel, but there was something in the way he told it that made Amy believe him. Had he and Dan really been in that situation? Who were these Vesper guys? What did they want? There were dozens of questions running around her head, threatening to burst out, giving her a headache. What kind of madness was her family involved in?
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 12:54 pm on February 14, 2012
Login to like
it.
23 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Ok, really, this is AMAAAZZING! Is she going to meet any of the other Cahills?
cool, I am starting to learn spanish, I like English better too
lol......
Me llamo Eliana.......lol!
out
cool, I am starting to learn spanish, I like English better too
lol......Me llamo Eliana.......lol!
out
♫“Nothing to run from is worse than something.”
“We have nothing, if not belief.”
♫Faith, Trust, and a little Pixie dustnever hurtanybody
GU
Posted at: 7:44 pm on February 14, 2012
Login to like
it.
6 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
!Hola Eliana! Yo soy Carla :)
Yeah I'm introducing the other Cahills in chapter 5 which is after the clue hunt. Chapters 3 and 4 are also on Amy and Dan. Should I post chapter 3?
Yeah I'm introducing the other Cahills in chapter 5 which is after the clue hunt. Chapters 3 and 4 are also on Amy and Dan. Should I post chapter 3?
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 11:04 am on February 15, 2012
Login to like
it.
8 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
This story is AMAZING! You're an awesome writer! Keep writing! :)
“I love your dress, Not yours.”- Haymitch
"Here’s some advice. Stay Alive." - Haymitch
Posted at: 6:20 pm on February 15, 2012
Login to like
it.
5 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Oh my gosh, this is amazing!! I can't get enough it! Keep posting!!
God is everything I need.
Posted at: 6:59 pm on February 15, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Please keep posting, this is awesome. I like the idea of a prequel, you've really got it going. Post chapter three, PLEASE, for me?
Madeline Cahill
Dance... like no one's watching
Sing... like no one's listening
Dream... like nothing can ever hold you back!
Maddie: Dancer, Singer, Dreamer!
Posted at: 7:42 pm on February 15, 2012
Login to like
it.
5 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
really love it. it has dyamics into it that no one else has ever thought of. and has really brought another side to it as we don't relly get much of a feel about arthur in the serise. so keep it up!!!
I am a cahill, one family, one union
VESPERS- I WE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND DESTROY YOU, NO MATTER WHAT
Sophie Matthews Cahill: signing out (p.s this is not my real name)
Posted at: 2:19 am on February 16, 2012
Login to like
it.
6 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
I never would've thought of this! You should DEFINATELY write more!!!! It's really amazing! Can I please be in it? I'll wait for an answer before I apply. Anyways, AWESOME!!!!
Briana
Shoot to kill?~Ian
May the odds be ever in your favor!~Effie
Dear "cool" kids, if ur so cool, why don't u have a candy named after u? Signed, the Nerds
Posted at: 8:06 am on February 16, 2012
Login to like
it.
6 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Hi everyone! Thanks sooo much for the comments, they mean a lot to me! Here goes Chapter 3 which can be considered quite sad, but is essential to the story. Hope it's okay!
CHAPTER THREE
The cold wind chilled Dan to the bone. Literally. His bones were aching from the cold; he felt like an old man. He had been in plenty of cold places: Siberia, Canada or Iceland to name a few. But the icy Norwegian air made him feel like a popsicle in a freezer. They had been living in Norway for almost a month now, and the awesomeness of the place still impressed him. Today for example, he and his father had decided to take a little field trip to a lake in the mountains. It wasn’t one of the most popular lakes tourists liked to visit, and it had taken several hours to get there, but Dan thought it was totally worth it.
The lake had completely frozen because of the cold. It was now a thick layer of ice, creaking and groaning like a huge monster. The lake was surrounded by miles of forest, the pine trees were covered in white snow and the fresh smell of nature was overwhelming. The sky was an intense, clear blue; cloudless and picture-perfect. Dan could hear the birds singing as if they too were happy the weekend had finally come and in that moment he felt full of optimism and cheerfulness, despite the chilly air and his aching bones. Nothing could spoil this perfect day in this perfect place, it was just too awesome.
“Come on! Let’s walk out onto the ice!” Dan called out to his dad gleefully, “I bet I can slide better than you can,” he said before running out onto the frozen lake. His father followed him, glad to see his son was enjoying the trip.
“Be careful Dan! You don’t want to slip and get wet, if you think it’s cold now that you’re dry imagine how freezing it would be if you were soaked!” Arthur warned.
“It’s okay, it’s not that slippery.” Dan started running around the ice in excitement. “This place is great; I wish we could live here.”
“Well think about it this way,” Arthur started, “if we lived here we’d have to drive for at least two hours to get to the nearest village. Meaning every day to go to school, or buy groceries or whatever you would have to sit in a car bored for hours.” Arthur joined his son on the ice, he too, enjoying the views.
“Meh. Minor inconvenience. I would get to enjoy all of this every day of the year as my reward. And think about it in summer! We could take a boat out and row for hours without reaching the other end of the lake. I can’t even see where it ends, it must be huge.”
“Probably,” his dad agreed, “Where would you put a house here any-“
Dan turned to look at his father, wondering why he had stopped so abruptly, and noticed he was squinting at something on the shore. Then he saw it too.
“Dan, run,” Arthur ordered, and pulled his son after him as he broke into a run across the ice, away from the shore. Dan ran as fast as his legs could carry him, adrenaline pumping through his veins like poison. His only thought was getting away, escaping, surviving. He ran for his life now like he had on so many other occasions. The Vespers had found them yet again, they had been standing in the shore, and this time they had brought something more than poison.
He ran desperately, his feet moving so fast he had to concentrate to keep himself from slipping and falling; one misstep, one small mistake could cost him his life. There was no cover in the open lake, nowhere to hide, and it was too risky to head for the forest. It seemed too far away in all directions and it would just make them lose time.
His breath was coming out in wheezes and gasps now, his asthma was taking over, and he started feeling dizzy. Shots rang out in the open space, ringing in his ears, but at the same time making him run faster. His father was a few feet ahead of him, as his longer legs allowed him to run faster, but glancing behind to check on him every couple of seconds.
Dan knew he couldn’t keep this pace up for much longer, he could barely breathe and his lungs were about to burst. But he kept pushing himself, fear driving him. He tried not to imagine one of those bullets going straight through him; it was hard. He just had to keep running. Faster. You’re running for your life now, faster. Then time seemed to slow down.
Arthur turned his head yet again to make sure Dan was still keeping up, and in that instant – that horrible and life-changing instant- a shot rang out like a cannon and the bullet went straight through his father’s head. A shower of blood sprayed out behind him, and Arthur’s body dropped to the ice like a broken doll.
“DAD!” Dan screamed, “DAD!”
Dan threw himself across the ice to where his father’s body lay motionless. A pool of blood surrounded his head, staining the clear ice with its dark color. Arthur lay, his skin as white as the snow that surrounded them, his now sightless eyes staring at the endless sky. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. His father had to be alive, he had to.
But as Dan looked into his father’s face he knew he was gone. It had finally happened; the Vespers had gotten what they had wanted all this time. The only thing he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears, and the loud crack of the shot that had taken his father’s life still ringing in his head, mocking, taunting. He threw himself over Arthur’s body, refusing to let go. The warm tears slid down his cheeks and he yelled. A yell of grief and agony. A yell full of pain and anger. He yelled for his father’s death, for the end of innocence, for the thirst of vengeance that now pulsed through him. He buried his head in his father’s chest and he hugged him while he sobbed and cried.
The world had shown Dan its cruel and brutal face now; a complete opposite to the optimism he had been feeling what now seemed like hours ago, but had actually been a few minutes. Death had claimed the person he had loved most in the world. It had taken away from him the only person that had always been there, every time they moved, wherever they went. It had robbed him of his father, his friend, his teacher. Nothing mattered anymore. There was just never-ending pain, agony, grief, anguish. He felt like he would never feel warm again, like he was condemned to stay cold forever as a reminder of this icy place where his father had taken his last breath.
He knew the Vespers were gone. They didn’t need Dan dead; their only purpose had been to eliminate Arthur. Now their job was done and they could at last end their vicious hunt. But Dan wanted revenge. He wanted to get back to them for this, get back to them and hurt them as bad as he could. Payback would come, he decided, and the Vespers would regret this day when it did.
Dan lost all notion of time. He had no idea how many hours he lay there on the ice, clutching his father’s corpse. It must have been a long time, for when he looked up the sun was setting and the first stars were coming out. He dried his tears with the back of his hand and with a heavy heart took his cell phone out of his pocket. He knew he couldn’t stay here, he needed help. He dialed his mother’s cell phone number, which Arthur had made him memorize years ago in case an emergency ever came up. Dan waited, praying there was a signal and taking big gulps of air to calm himself down.
“Hello?” he had never been happier to hear his mother’s voice.
“Mom?” he said shakily.
“Dan are you okay?” his mother sounded alarmed, “What’s wrong?”
“Mom, dad…dad’s d-d-dead,” he managed before breaking down into tears again. There was a heavy silence on the other end of the phone before Hope recovered.
“Dan where are you? What happened?”
“I’m in this l-l-lake in Norway,” Dan answered, “Vespers came and… and they killed him.” He was unable to continue for he was crying too hard.
“Are you alone? Are they still around?”
“They left, yeah I’m alone.”
“Call the police immediately. You can’t be out there on your own, you understand?”
“I don’t even know what the police number is in Norway! And they’ll take hours to get here anyways.”
“I’ll look the number up right away,” there was a silence in which Dan only heard his mother typing on a computer, searching for the number, “okay here it is, you have to call 112. Dan just try to keep calm and I’ll be on the first flight there.”
“Okay.”
“Take care of yourself, go with the police and tell them what happened. If any trouble comes up while you’re waiting for them just run, get out of there. Got that?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry I’ll be there as soon as possible,” his mother reassured him.
Dan hung up and dialed 112 with trembling fingers.
He waited for hours, sitting on the freezing ice next to his father’s body. Darkness came and enfolded him like a blanket. The only light was the one the moon provided, which was not much. Dan wondered how on earth the police were going to find him when they arrived. He had still been able to see the shore when there had been enough light, which meant he wasn’t too far out into the lake, but in the dark he couldn’t even make out where the ice ended and land started. He figured he’d probably see the police car’s headlights when they drove down the narrow road that led to the lake, and then he’d go to them, or else yell or signal somehow for them to see him. Right now two things scared him the most: one of them was the cold. If it had been cold when he had been running around the ice with his dad, it was almost arctic now. He had heard stories of people who froze to death, or got frostbitten and lost fingers or ears. He certainly didn’t want that happening to him. The second of his worries was falling asleep. If he fell asleep the police might not be able to find him, or he would freeze to death anyways.
He felt numb. From the cold and most of all from the pain that still clung to his heart. He just sat there like a guard dog protecting his father’s body. He tried to think about anything else, but his thoughts kept coming back to the man that now lay cold and lifeless next to him. It was too hard to get distracted, and several times he found himself crying again.
When the police arrived he was too tired to go towards the sound of their voices, which were calling out to him. They finally found him, and with their flashlights shining on his face, momentarily blinding him, spoke to him in calm Norwegian which Dan didn’t understand at all. They pulled him to his feet and away from his father’s body, away from the place he would never be able to forget, no matter how much time went by.
CHAPTER THREE
The cold wind chilled Dan to the bone. Literally. His bones were aching from the cold; he felt like an old man. He had been in plenty of cold places: Siberia, Canada or Iceland to name a few. But the icy Norwegian air made him feel like a popsicle in a freezer. They had been living in Norway for almost a month now, and the awesomeness of the place still impressed him. Today for example, he and his father had decided to take a little field trip to a lake in the mountains. It wasn’t one of the most popular lakes tourists liked to visit, and it had taken several hours to get there, but Dan thought it was totally worth it.
The lake had completely frozen because of the cold. It was now a thick layer of ice, creaking and groaning like a huge monster. The lake was surrounded by miles of forest, the pine trees were covered in white snow and the fresh smell of nature was overwhelming. The sky was an intense, clear blue; cloudless and picture-perfect. Dan could hear the birds singing as if they too were happy the weekend had finally come and in that moment he felt full of optimism and cheerfulness, despite the chilly air and his aching bones. Nothing could spoil this perfect day in this perfect place, it was just too awesome.
“Come on! Let’s walk out onto the ice!” Dan called out to his dad gleefully, “I bet I can slide better than you can,” he said before running out onto the frozen lake. His father followed him, glad to see his son was enjoying the trip.
“Be careful Dan! You don’t want to slip and get wet, if you think it’s cold now that you’re dry imagine how freezing it would be if you were soaked!” Arthur warned.
“It’s okay, it’s not that slippery.” Dan started running around the ice in excitement. “This place is great; I wish we could live here.”
“Well think about it this way,” Arthur started, “if we lived here we’d have to drive for at least two hours to get to the nearest village. Meaning every day to go to school, or buy groceries or whatever you would have to sit in a car bored for hours.” Arthur joined his son on the ice, he too, enjoying the views.
“Meh. Minor inconvenience. I would get to enjoy all of this every day of the year as my reward. And think about it in summer! We could take a boat out and row for hours without reaching the other end of the lake. I can’t even see where it ends, it must be huge.”
“Probably,” his dad agreed, “Where would you put a house here any-“
Dan turned to look at his father, wondering why he had stopped so abruptly, and noticed he was squinting at something on the shore. Then he saw it too.
“Dan, run,” Arthur ordered, and pulled his son after him as he broke into a run across the ice, away from the shore. Dan ran as fast as his legs could carry him, adrenaline pumping through his veins like poison. His only thought was getting away, escaping, surviving. He ran for his life now like he had on so many other occasions. The Vespers had found them yet again, they had been standing in the shore, and this time they had brought something more than poison.
He ran desperately, his feet moving so fast he had to concentrate to keep himself from slipping and falling; one misstep, one small mistake could cost him his life. There was no cover in the open lake, nowhere to hide, and it was too risky to head for the forest. It seemed too far away in all directions and it would just make them lose time.
His breath was coming out in wheezes and gasps now, his asthma was taking over, and he started feeling dizzy. Shots rang out in the open space, ringing in his ears, but at the same time making him run faster. His father was a few feet ahead of him, as his longer legs allowed him to run faster, but glancing behind to check on him every couple of seconds.
Dan knew he couldn’t keep this pace up for much longer, he could barely breathe and his lungs were about to burst. But he kept pushing himself, fear driving him. He tried not to imagine one of those bullets going straight through him; it was hard. He just had to keep running. Faster. You’re running for your life now, faster. Then time seemed to slow down.
Arthur turned his head yet again to make sure Dan was still keeping up, and in that instant – that horrible and life-changing instant- a shot rang out like a cannon and the bullet went straight through his father’s head. A shower of blood sprayed out behind him, and Arthur’s body dropped to the ice like a broken doll.
“DAD!” Dan screamed, “DAD!”
Dan threw himself across the ice to where his father’s body lay motionless. A pool of blood surrounded his head, staining the clear ice with its dark color. Arthur lay, his skin as white as the snow that surrounded them, his now sightless eyes staring at the endless sky. It wasn’t possible. It couldn’t be. His father had to be alive, he had to.
But as Dan looked into his father’s face he knew he was gone. It had finally happened; the Vespers had gotten what they had wanted all this time. The only thing he could hear was the blood rushing in his ears, and the loud crack of the shot that had taken his father’s life still ringing in his head, mocking, taunting. He threw himself over Arthur’s body, refusing to let go. The warm tears slid down his cheeks and he yelled. A yell of grief and agony. A yell full of pain and anger. He yelled for his father’s death, for the end of innocence, for the thirst of vengeance that now pulsed through him. He buried his head in his father’s chest and he hugged him while he sobbed and cried.
The world had shown Dan its cruel and brutal face now; a complete opposite to the optimism he had been feeling what now seemed like hours ago, but had actually been a few minutes. Death had claimed the person he had loved most in the world. It had taken away from him the only person that had always been there, every time they moved, wherever they went. It had robbed him of his father, his friend, his teacher. Nothing mattered anymore. There was just never-ending pain, agony, grief, anguish. He felt like he would never feel warm again, like he was condemned to stay cold forever as a reminder of this icy place where his father had taken his last breath.
He knew the Vespers were gone. They didn’t need Dan dead; their only purpose had been to eliminate Arthur. Now their job was done and they could at last end their vicious hunt. But Dan wanted revenge. He wanted to get back to them for this, get back to them and hurt them as bad as he could. Payback would come, he decided, and the Vespers would regret this day when it did.
Dan lost all notion of time. He had no idea how many hours he lay there on the ice, clutching his father’s corpse. It must have been a long time, for when he looked up the sun was setting and the first stars were coming out. He dried his tears with the back of his hand and with a heavy heart took his cell phone out of his pocket. He knew he couldn’t stay here, he needed help. He dialed his mother’s cell phone number, which Arthur had made him memorize years ago in case an emergency ever came up. Dan waited, praying there was a signal and taking big gulps of air to calm himself down.
“Hello?” he had never been happier to hear his mother’s voice.
“Mom?” he said shakily.
“Dan are you okay?” his mother sounded alarmed, “What’s wrong?”
“Mom, dad…dad’s d-d-dead,” he managed before breaking down into tears again. There was a heavy silence on the other end of the phone before Hope recovered.
“Dan where are you? What happened?”
“I’m in this l-l-lake in Norway,” Dan answered, “Vespers came and… and they killed him.” He was unable to continue for he was crying too hard.
“Are you alone? Are they still around?”
“They left, yeah I’m alone.”
“Call the police immediately. You can’t be out there on your own, you understand?”
“I don’t even know what the police number is in Norway! And they’ll take hours to get here anyways.”
“I’ll look the number up right away,” there was a silence in which Dan only heard his mother typing on a computer, searching for the number, “okay here it is, you have to call 112. Dan just try to keep calm and I’ll be on the first flight there.”
“Okay.”
“Take care of yourself, go with the police and tell them what happened. If any trouble comes up while you’re waiting for them just run, get out of there. Got that?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry I’ll be there as soon as possible,” his mother reassured him.
Dan hung up and dialed 112 with trembling fingers.
He waited for hours, sitting on the freezing ice next to his father’s body. Darkness came and enfolded him like a blanket. The only light was the one the moon provided, which was not much. Dan wondered how on earth the police were going to find him when they arrived. He had still been able to see the shore when there had been enough light, which meant he wasn’t too far out into the lake, but in the dark he couldn’t even make out where the ice ended and land started. He figured he’d probably see the police car’s headlights when they drove down the narrow road that led to the lake, and then he’d go to them, or else yell or signal somehow for them to see him. Right now two things scared him the most: one of them was the cold. If it had been cold when he had been running around the ice with his dad, it was almost arctic now. He had heard stories of people who froze to death, or got frostbitten and lost fingers or ears. He certainly didn’t want that happening to him. The second of his worries was falling asleep. If he fell asleep the police might not be able to find him, or he would freeze to death anyways.
He felt numb. From the cold and most of all from the pain that still clung to his heart. He just sat there like a guard dog protecting his father’s body. He tried to think about anything else, but his thoughts kept coming back to the man that now lay cold and lifeless next to him. It was too hard to get distracted, and several times he found himself crying again.
When the police arrived he was too tired to go towards the sound of their voices, which were calling out to him. They finally found him, and with their flashlights shining on his face, momentarily blinding him, spoke to him in calm Norwegian which Dan didn’t understand at all. They pulled him to his feet and away from his father’s body, away from the place he would never be able to forget, no matter how much time went by.
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 11:44 am on February 16, 2012
Login to like
it.
18 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@WolfJourney11: Hey! Thanks for your comment! Yeah you can be in it, just give me a little information about you such as what you look like, your name (you can make up a fake name), what you're good at and anything else you'd like to include about yourself.
I'm sorry to say chapters 3, 4 and 5 are already written, so you can't be in them. But I can definetly include you in Chapter 6 if you don't mind the waiting. Thanks once again for your comment, it really means the world to me when people read my stories :)
P.S. I can see in your signature you're a Harry Potter fan! I am too! What's your favorite of the 7 books?
I'm sorry to say chapters 3, 4 and 5 are already written, so you can't be in them. But I can definetly include you in Chapter 6 if you don't mind the waiting. Thanks once again for your comment, it really means the world to me when people read my stories :)
P.S. I can see in your signature you're a Harry Potter fan! I am too! What's your favorite of the 7 books?
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 2:08 pm on February 16, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Thanks to everyone who has commented and/or read my story. I will be posting chapter 4 soon if you guys want me to. Chapter 4 is Amy's POV, and the next chapter (Chapter 5) is Reagan's POV and Sinead's POV. I haven't written Chapter 6 yet but I have plenty of ideas!
Just so you guys know, I've added the cards of everyone who's commented :)
Thanks to everyone! You guys are the best!
Just so you guys know, I've added the cards of everyone who's commented :)
Thanks to everyone! You guys are the best!
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 3:26 pm on February 16, 2012
Login to like
it.
6 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Thx! When I read that last POV where Arthur died I was literally CRYING!!!! I like Prisoner of Azkaban both ways (Book and movie) and Order of the Phoenix is a close second for the movie, but I've never read the book yet. What's your favorite? Here's my Bio. I don't mind the wait. Thanks again!
Name: Briana Marshall(Not real last name)
Age: 13
Branch: Janus
Looks: Slightly curly, light brown hair, blue eyes, tall, tanish, and thin with a birthmark in the shape of a rabbit on my knee(Really!)
personality: Funny, sarcastic, will do anything to protect her friends, and definately a tomboy!
likes: Animals, Star Wars, ninjas, fighting, reading, writing, sports and playing video games
dislikes: Vespers, animal abusers/haters, and makeup (Call me weird, IK!)
Other: Can I please be Dan's friend? Or new Girl friend later on? And I'm fine with anything friendwise really! Oh, and I'm allergic to cats.....
Thx for letting me be in it! And even though English isn't your first language, you don't have many mistakes! You're really good!
Name: Briana Marshall(Not real last name)
Age: 13
Branch: Janus
Looks: Slightly curly, light brown hair, blue eyes, tall, tanish, and thin with a birthmark in the shape of a rabbit on my knee(Really!)
personality: Funny, sarcastic, will do anything to protect her friends, and definately a tomboy!
likes: Animals, Star Wars, ninjas, fighting, reading, writing, sports and playing video games
dislikes: Vespers, animal abusers/haters, and makeup (Call me weird, IK!)
Other: Can I please be Dan's friend? Or new Girl friend later on? And I'm fine with anything friendwise really! Oh, and I'm allergic to cats.....
Thx for letting me be in it! And even though English isn't your first language, you don't have many mistakes! You're really good!
Briana
Shoot to kill?~Ian
May the odds be ever in your favor!~Effie
Dear "cool" kids, if ur so cool, why don't u have a candy named after u? Signed, the Nerds
Posted at: 8:23 pm on February 16, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Dude this is awesome, who else is still alive other than Arthur? Is Hope still alive and do they still visit Grace? I have so many questions, but I suppose they'll be answered soon, when you post the next chapters, so please POST AS SOON AS YOU CAN!!
Cahills vs. Vespers
The Hunger Games
I keep wondering and wondering when will my life begin? -Tangled
Posted at: 9:09 pm on February 16, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
WOW!!!!!!! It is REALLY hard to believe that english is your second language!!! YOUR WRITING IS FANTASTIC!! KEEP IT UP!!
you are very talented...you could be a janus!
Witty Assassin6
i added you!
you are very talented...you could be a janus!
Witty Assassin6
i added you!
EKTOMALUJA
bWittyAssassin6---The Wittiest Assassin around d
I am Random...befriend me at your own risk...
District 7 Tribute
Sherlocked
Ravenclaw
Posted at: 2:53 am on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
yes!! please post now!!
God is everything I need.
Posted at: 6:50 am on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@WolfJourney11: hey! :) I like books 2 and 7 the best I think, although i've re-read all of them at least once (that's how much I like them). I finished reading all the books when I was 9 (I'm 14 now) so it's been quite a long time since I read them. I did watch the last movie this summer, it was awesome!
Thanks for the bio on you! I have an idea on how to put you in the story already. You'll be appearing on Chapter 6, which I'll start writing probably today or tomorrow and will post as soon as I can. It'll be interesting adding a character in the story that's not already in one of the 39 Clues books! I've never done it before so I hope it turns out okay!
Thanks for the bio on you! I have an idea on how to put you in the story already. You'll be appearing on Chapter 6, which I'll start writing probably today or tomorrow and will post as soon as I can. It'll be interesting adding a character in the story that's not already in one of the 39 Clues books! I've never done it before so I hope it turns out okay!
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 7:49 am on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@AdorableBlue10: yeah, the whole story of why Arthur is alive, what happened to Hope and all that is explained in the first 3 chapters (which are the ones that are already posted) I hope it's clear enough! I don't know if I made it too complicated...
But to answer your questions:
1. Both Arthur and Hope survived the fire, but they both thought the other was dead until a year later when Arthur found out Hope was alive and contacted her (explained in chapter one).
2. Yes Hope is alive, she lives with Amy and Grace in Grace's mansion in Attleboro while Arthur and Dan are traveling around the world hiding from the Vespers. Arthur and Dan never visit Grace, Amy and Hope because it would be too dangerous and it would bring the Vespers directly to the 3 of them and endanger them.
I hope this cleared it up! Thanks for reading and commenting :)
But to answer your questions:
1. Both Arthur and Hope survived the fire, but they both thought the other was dead until a year later when Arthur found out Hope was alive and contacted her (explained in chapter one).
2. Yes Hope is alive, she lives with Amy and Grace in Grace's mansion in Attleboro while Arthur and Dan are traveling around the world hiding from the Vespers. Arthur and Dan never visit Grace, Amy and Hope because it would be too dangerous and it would bring the Vespers directly to the 3 of them and endanger them.
I hope this cleared it up! Thanks for reading and commenting :)
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 8:30 am on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@WittyAssassin6: Thanks! Although I doubt I could be a Janus, I can't play any instruments (I like piano but I can't play it) and you DO NOT want to see my drawings (they look like 5 year old pictues, seriously!!). Writing is my only art, I am a Lucian at heart! (wow did that just rhyme?) LOL.
P.S. I added you too!
P.S. I added you too!
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 8:35 am on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Chapter 4, Amy's POV. This is the last chapter that happens BEFORE the Clue Hunt, Chapter 5 will happen after the hunt and we will see more of the other characters!
CHAPTER FOUR
Amy Cahill looked at herself on the mirror, miserable. A funeral was never fun, and it was even worse when it was your father’s. Coming to think about it, who in their right mind had had the magnificent idea of inventing the word FUNeral? She glanced out the window and groaned when she realized it was starting to rain. Perfect weather to top the perfect day off. She sighed, feeling wretched.
It had been barely a few days ago when her mother had received the shocking call from Dan. Without even bothering to pack, she had left off in a hurry to Norway, where Dan had told her dad had been killed. The news had sent Amy’s world crashing down. She hadn’t known her father very well, only as well as you could know someone talking to them a few times a week on Skype, but he was still her father. She regretted not ever having had the chance to meet him properly. And then there were the questions.
Her head had always been filled with unanswered questions about her father and brother, but they had been nothing compared to the questions she had now. Who would want to kill her father? Her mind flashed back to the conversation she had eavesdropped on a few weeks ago. Arthur had been telling her mom about an encounter with the Vespers on the plane. Had it been those same people that killed him? Desperate to find out who these Vesper people were, Amy had spent hours searching the internet and the library looking for answers. But she hadn’t found one single thing on Vespers. She had even tried different ways of spelling the word, ranging from Besspirs to Vhesppers, but nothing seemed to bring her any closer to finding out who they were.
When her mom and Dan had gotten back from Norway, the mood in the house had gotten even more depressing. It had been the first time she had ever seen her little brother face to face, not counting of course when they were younger, before their family got split up. He was slightly shorter than she had imagined him and far quieter than he had ever been on Skype, where he just wouldn’t shut up. This, Amy thought, probably had something to do with his father being murdered in front of him. Losing Arthur was painful enough for Amy; she couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for Dan. The two of them had always been real close, and they had been all each other had nearby.
Amy straightened her black funeral dress and combed her reddish-brown hair thoroughly before she decided she looked decent enough for a funeral. She usually didn’t really care how she looked; she tended to wear simple T-shirts and jeans, not wanting to bring attention to herself. But today was a special occasion, she felt it would be disrespectful to turn up looking like a mess.
She made her way downstairs where Grace and her mother were waiting for her and Dan by the door. Dan came down after her, dressed in a borrowed suit.
“Everyone ready to go?” Grace asked. They all nodded and made their way to Hope’s car. The ride was somewhat long and really quiet. The only sound was the pattering of the rain on the windows, as if the sky itself were crying over her father’s death. Everything looked gray and gloomy, and the landscape reminded Amy of one of those old black and white pictures.
They finally arrived at Crestwood Cemetery, where the funeral would be held. There weren’t many people there, seeing as most people Arthur had known before leaving Boston thought he had died in the fire seven years ago. It was just them, Aunt Beatrice and a few men Amy had never seen before.
Grace walked over to one of the men who was standing nearby. He had a mass of black curls and piercing gray eyes. They exchanged a few words Amy didn’t catch and then the man handed Grace a large manila envelope. Grace nodded slowly and said something else. Amy wished she could run over there, yank the envelope out of Grace’s hand and open it. Her curiosity was prickling, and something told her the envelope could contain the answers to her questions. As her grandmother stuffed the envelope into her coat pocket, Amy was able to get a glimpse of something on the corner of it. It was a capitalized M.
The rest of the funeral went by slowly; the minute hand on Amy’s watch seemed to be too lazy to move. The pouring rain drenched all of them, an after barely twenty minutes Amy was shivering so much she couldn’t keep her teeth from chattering. Thankfully, the rain hid her tears, but she had a feeling she wasn’t the only one crying.
Without doubt the hardest moment, the most difficult to bear, was when Dan walked right up to where their father’s coffin was, turned to the small group and started talking:
“My dad…he was a man like no other. He showed me the most amazing things, taught me how to survive, but most importantly how to live. We went through some tough times, yeah, but that never wiped the smile off his face. When I just felt like dropping dead he would come up with some joke or funny comment to cheer me up. It was always situation normal with him. He saw light where everyone else saw darkness. And he found warmth even in…in the-“his voice cracked for a moment “the coldest places. My father, he was a hero in his own way. Wherever we went people loved him. He made them laugh, and sometimes something as simple as that can make someone’s day.” Dan was choking back tears now, “I will always remember all the times he would take me to incredible places and then point out the randomest little things, like a couple of odd colored stones on some monument that looked like a smiley face. He would never stop pushing me to do better, and quoting people I had never heard of before, like Zig Ziglar, whoever that was, with his weird quote: ‘People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.’ Those ridiculous comments meant the world to me.” Dan stopped, taking in shuddering breaths before continuing once more. “Some people are forgotten when they die. They become nothing but a bunch of bones underground and a tombstone. But I know my dad… I know he will live on in the hearts of the many that were fortunate to get to know him well enough. I consider myself one of those fortunate people. I honestly wouldn’t be the same person had my dad not been such a big part of my life. I’m grateful for the time I got to spend with him, and I know that for as long as I live there will at least be one person in this world that will think of Arthur Josiah Trent every single day.”
Amy found herself crying even harder, touched by her brother’s speech. She couldn’t help it anymore, she slowly walked over to where Dan was standing and threw her arms around him, hugging her little brother for the first time she could remember. He hugged her right back, still sobbing and the two siblings stood there under the rain, misery over their loss fresh in their hearts.
Okay, just to make this clear: the man Grace was talking to was Erasmus. I used the description of him that was given in Vespers Rising. The thing is, Amy didn't know who Erasmus was until after the Clue Hunt, and since this was Amy's POV I couldn't really say who he was. Another thing: the envelope is irrelevant to the story. It was probably some Madrigal files or a report on Arthur's services to the Madrigals before he died or something like that. The capitalized M on the envelope is (as many of you have probably figured) the Madrigal symbol, but Amy didn't know that before the hunt. I just did this to get Amy more confused, since she had no idea of who the Madrigals were at the time of this story. Thanks!
CHAPTER FOUR
Amy Cahill looked at herself on the mirror, miserable. A funeral was never fun, and it was even worse when it was your father’s. Coming to think about it, who in their right mind had had the magnificent idea of inventing the word FUNeral? She glanced out the window and groaned when she realized it was starting to rain. Perfect weather to top the perfect day off. She sighed, feeling wretched.
It had been barely a few days ago when her mother had received the shocking call from Dan. Without even bothering to pack, she had left off in a hurry to Norway, where Dan had told her dad had been killed. The news had sent Amy’s world crashing down. She hadn’t known her father very well, only as well as you could know someone talking to them a few times a week on Skype, but he was still her father. She regretted not ever having had the chance to meet him properly. And then there were the questions.
Her head had always been filled with unanswered questions about her father and brother, but they had been nothing compared to the questions she had now. Who would want to kill her father? Her mind flashed back to the conversation she had eavesdropped on a few weeks ago. Arthur had been telling her mom about an encounter with the Vespers on the plane. Had it been those same people that killed him? Desperate to find out who these Vesper people were, Amy had spent hours searching the internet and the library looking for answers. But she hadn’t found one single thing on Vespers. She had even tried different ways of spelling the word, ranging from Besspirs to Vhesppers, but nothing seemed to bring her any closer to finding out who they were.
When her mom and Dan had gotten back from Norway, the mood in the house had gotten even more depressing. It had been the first time she had ever seen her little brother face to face, not counting of course when they were younger, before their family got split up. He was slightly shorter than she had imagined him and far quieter than he had ever been on Skype, where he just wouldn’t shut up. This, Amy thought, probably had something to do with his father being murdered in front of him. Losing Arthur was painful enough for Amy; she couldn’t even imagine what it had been like for Dan. The two of them had always been real close, and they had been all each other had nearby.
Amy straightened her black funeral dress and combed her reddish-brown hair thoroughly before she decided she looked decent enough for a funeral. She usually didn’t really care how she looked; she tended to wear simple T-shirts and jeans, not wanting to bring attention to herself. But today was a special occasion, she felt it would be disrespectful to turn up looking like a mess.
She made her way downstairs where Grace and her mother were waiting for her and Dan by the door. Dan came down after her, dressed in a borrowed suit.
“Everyone ready to go?” Grace asked. They all nodded and made their way to Hope’s car. The ride was somewhat long and really quiet. The only sound was the pattering of the rain on the windows, as if the sky itself were crying over her father’s death. Everything looked gray and gloomy, and the landscape reminded Amy of one of those old black and white pictures.
They finally arrived at Crestwood Cemetery, where the funeral would be held. There weren’t many people there, seeing as most people Arthur had known before leaving Boston thought he had died in the fire seven years ago. It was just them, Aunt Beatrice and a few men Amy had never seen before.
Grace walked over to one of the men who was standing nearby. He had a mass of black curls and piercing gray eyes. They exchanged a few words Amy didn’t catch and then the man handed Grace a large manila envelope. Grace nodded slowly and said something else. Amy wished she could run over there, yank the envelope out of Grace’s hand and open it. Her curiosity was prickling, and something told her the envelope could contain the answers to her questions. As her grandmother stuffed the envelope into her coat pocket, Amy was able to get a glimpse of something on the corner of it. It was a capitalized M.
The rest of the funeral went by slowly; the minute hand on Amy’s watch seemed to be too lazy to move. The pouring rain drenched all of them, an after barely twenty minutes Amy was shivering so much she couldn’t keep her teeth from chattering. Thankfully, the rain hid her tears, but she had a feeling she wasn’t the only one crying.
Without doubt the hardest moment, the most difficult to bear, was when Dan walked right up to where their father’s coffin was, turned to the small group and started talking:
“My dad…he was a man like no other. He showed me the most amazing things, taught me how to survive, but most importantly how to live. We went through some tough times, yeah, but that never wiped the smile off his face. When I just felt like dropping dead he would come up with some joke or funny comment to cheer me up. It was always situation normal with him. He saw light where everyone else saw darkness. And he found warmth even in…in the-“his voice cracked for a moment “the coldest places. My father, he was a hero in his own way. Wherever we went people loved him. He made them laugh, and sometimes something as simple as that can make someone’s day.” Dan was choking back tears now, “I will always remember all the times he would take me to incredible places and then point out the randomest little things, like a couple of odd colored stones on some monument that looked like a smiley face. He would never stop pushing me to do better, and quoting people I had never heard of before, like Zig Ziglar, whoever that was, with his weird quote: ‘People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.’ Those ridiculous comments meant the world to me.” Dan stopped, taking in shuddering breaths before continuing once more. “Some people are forgotten when they die. They become nothing but a bunch of bones underground and a tombstone. But I know my dad… I know he will live on in the hearts of the many that were fortunate to get to know him well enough. I consider myself one of those fortunate people. I honestly wouldn’t be the same person had my dad not been such a big part of my life. I’m grateful for the time I got to spend with him, and I know that for as long as I live there will at least be one person in this world that will think of Arthur Josiah Trent every single day.”
Amy found herself crying even harder, touched by her brother’s speech. She couldn’t help it anymore, she slowly walked over to where Dan was standing and threw her arms around him, hugging her little brother for the first time she could remember. He hugged her right back, still sobbing and the two siblings stood there under the rain, misery over their loss fresh in their hearts.
Okay, just to make this clear: the man Grace was talking to was Erasmus. I used the description of him that was given in Vespers Rising. The thing is, Amy didn't know who Erasmus was until after the Clue Hunt, and since this was Amy's POV I couldn't really say who he was. Another thing: the envelope is irrelevant to the story. It was probably some Madrigal files or a report on Arthur's services to the Madrigals before he died or something like that. The capitalized M on the envelope is (as many of you have probably figured) the Madrigal symbol, but Amy didn't know that before the hunt. I just did this to get Amy more confused, since she had no idea of who the Madrigals were at the time of this story. Thanks!
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 8:52 am on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
15 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
This is really good
Keep going
Keep going
Today is a gift
Thats why its called the present...
Ekatrina
ASHWINI :D
Posted at: 9:17 am on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Sorry about that last post of mine, I just started reading it when I posted that and I couldn't read the rest of it till today! It was so sad when Arthur died, I almost cried! This is an awesome story, you're like a real author, I can't even find any mistakes, you speak (write) really good English, even though it's not your first language. Please continue soon, I can't wait to find out what happens next!
Cahills vs. Vespers
The Hunger Games
I keep wondering and wondering when will my life begin? -Tangled
Posted at: 6:20 pm on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Thanks, it defenitely cleared it up! It was only confusing because I wasn't able to finish reading the first chapter all the way through because of school work, but now it's totally cleared up now that I was able to read it all the way through, thanks for the clarification!
Cahills vs. Vespers
The Hunger Games
I keep wondering and wondering when will my life begin? -Tangled
Posted at: 6:31 pm on February 17, 2012
Login to like
it.
2 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
That was really sad!!! I just got finished reading Bridge to Terabithia for the 3rd time, and I always cry when Leslie dies! I never cry about anything else, but, Dan's speech did it for me.....And thx for putting me in! I'm sure it will turn out GREAT! The last movie is awesome, I agree! But I don't like the fact that Dobby died...We have a statue of him in our library and he's holding a black sock behind his back. That was cool. Anyways, post soon! I LOOOOOVE this story!!!!!
~WolfJourney11
~WolfJourney11
Briana
Shoot to kill?~Ian
May the odds be ever in your favor!~Effie
Dear "cool" kids, if ur so cool, why don't u have a candy named after u? Signed, the Nerds
Posted at: 8:09 am on February 18, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@AdorableBlue10: that's ok, thanks for reading it :) So what do you think, should I post chapter 5?
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 1:03 pm on February 18, 2012
Login to like
it.
2 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@WolfJourney11: I KNOW!! When I read the 7th HP book I cried when Dobby died and when Harry died (or at least we thought he had died). It was sooo sad :( But when I really cried tons was when Dumbledore died... gosh I was so sad he was one of my favorite characters. And that's pretty awesome you have a statue of Dobby :) I wish we had a statue of him. I never read Bridge to Terabithia, but I watched the movie. I can't remember if I cried though... yeah I think I might have cried.
Chapter 6 is in the process of being written!
Chapter 6 is in the process of being written!
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 5:17 am on February 19, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
keep posting!!!!!
THE EKAT THAT HAS THE DIAMOND MEDAL!!!!
-----714ethan
Posted at: 10:06 am on February 20, 2012
Login to like
it.
2 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
EmeraldMaze45 - I am so0o0o0o glad I met you on the message board and you asked me to read your prequel. YOU ARE AWESOME TO THE MAX!!! I can't believe you aren't a seasoned author with like 10 books published already or something! I always wondered if the Vespers were behind the fire that killed Hope and Arthur after I found out that Isabel Kabra's maiden name was Vesper-Hollingsworth. But I NEVER even thought what it must have been like for Hope and Arthur after Arthur defected from the Vespers. I've always had a hard time getting characters down and sorting through their thoughts and feelings when I write, but you do such a great job! The whole chapter about Arthur's death and how Dan dealt with it was so poignant. Let me know when you publish your first book, because I want a signed copy! Maybe by next year??? :o) Have you written any original stories based on your own characters you've created or anything, because if so, I'd love to read an original. PLEASE keep adding chapters! You don't even have to ask - we WANT to read everything you have to write - you have us HOOKED!
I just spent about 2 hours just reading your chapters and reading all the comments - I couldn't tear myself away. My poor cat, Sadie. She was meowing for attention so bad, but I had to make her wait so I could keep reading. I've read all of the Harry Potter books like three or four times (I have memory issues, so I can't remember a lot from time to time, so I reread books a lot that I like.) and my favorite is Book 7. It was HORRIBLE when Dumbledore died (earlier book), but to learn everything about Snape and how Harry was able to defeat Lord Voldemort was awesome. I like the movies - I watch them all the time! And WolfJourney11 - I, too, think it's awesome to have a Dobby statue in your library. Cool!
Have any of you read The Hunger Games? I finished the first book yesterday and it's so good! I can't wait until March when I can get book 2! G2G. Sleepy and headachy. When I awake I hope the next chapter is here for me to read. (No pressure, though)
I require books as I require air. Sholem Asch
Eat this book - it contains food for your soul!SARK
I LOVE JESUS!
Posted at: 12:27 pm on February 20, 2012
Login to like
it.
2 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Yay!!! I can't wait to read it!!!! And I cried AFTER I watched Bridge to Terabithia cause the only reason me and my friend watched it was because she wanted to see me cry. I SWEAR She's a Lucian! So I cried when she wasn't looking. I also have a crush on the main guy.......and IT'S JUST SOOOO SAD CAUSE THE GIRL WHO PLAYED HER IS MY FAVORITE ACTRESS!!!!!! She's awesome in Soul Surfer! Anyways, I'm writeing 9 stories and a play with my BFF I mentioned, so I better go work on them. TTYL!(Type to you later)
Briana
Shoot to kill?~Ian
May the odds be ever in your favor!~Effie
Dear "cool" kids, if ur so cool, why don't u have a candy named after u? Signed, the Nerds
Posted at: 3:02 pm on February 20, 2012
Login to like
it.
3 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Is anyone even reading this anymore? I have 2 more chapters written and ready to post when you guys want me to. The next two chapters happen after the Clue Hunt so you'll get to see the other characters. Chapter 5 is Reagan's POV and Sinead's POV (I think I already mentioned this) and chapter 6 is Ian's POV and Briana's POV. Yes Briana, you're up in chapter 6!! Please read! Anyone?
I don't want to sound repetitive because everything I said above I had already mentioned before, but really? If you think my story is bad please be honest I'm open to any suggestions on how to make it better and any critisism (sp?) as long as it's not too mean. Please people this is the only thread I have that people actually read, my other 3 posts are ignored. So please please please please read and comment! This was actually in the first page for one day, now it's on page 13... no one will see it if it doesn't get boosted up by comments.
Okay I sound like I'm begging now... actually I am begging. *Falls to knees and clasps hands together looking with puppy eyes* Please comment, like or at least read! I've worked really hard on this! Nothing I've ever written has ever been read by anyone except my family and teachers and I really love to write. Just take two seconds to press the like button or to type in a comment.
Thanks!
I don't want to sound repetitive because everything I said above I had already mentioned before, but really? If you think my story is bad please be honest I'm open to any suggestions on how to make it better and any critisism (sp?) as long as it's not too mean. Please people this is the only thread I have that people actually read, my other 3 posts are ignored. So please please please please read and comment! This was actually in the first page for one day, now it's on page 13... no one will see it if it doesn't get boosted up by comments.
Okay I sound like I'm begging now... actually I am begging. *Falls to knees and clasps hands together looking with puppy eyes* Please comment, like or at least read! I've worked really hard on this! Nothing I've ever written has ever been read by anyone except my family and teachers and I really love to write. Just take two seconds to press the like button or to type in a comment.
Thanks!
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 3:17 pm on February 20, 2012
Login to like
it.
6 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Awesome story!!!My second language is English, too, and I think you are much better than me!Especially vocabulary. I like the idea of Arthur and Hope alive.
Stephanie Erica A. Cahill: Lucian/Janus
I prefer Stephanie and I am a South Korean!
May the odds be in your favor---The Hunger Games
Posted at: 12:03 am on February 21, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
I read your stories and they are really really good! I loved the way you wrote Dan's speech, and the charcters' emotions, those descriptions were amazing!!! It was sad when Arthur died, and I normally don't like stories that are too sad, but I still really like this one, and....You see, I have so many things to say. And yes, I would like to make a character! I wish you would make a chapter for her POV too!
Name: Stephenie
Age: 13
Appearance: She is tall and skinny. Her black shoulder-length hair is one-sided to the left, and covers her eyes a bit, so it makes you hard to read her looks. She has pale white skin and piercing black eyes.
Personalities: Stephenie loves reading, and she does not talk too much. She thinks carefully, and makes her decisions wisely. She is fast at running, and good with music.
Stephanie Erica A. Cahill: Lucian/Janus
I prefer Stephanie and I am a South Korean!
May the odds be in your favor---The Hunger Games
Posted at: 12:37 am on February 21, 2012
Login to like
it.
2 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
*Falls to knees and clasps hands together looking with puppy eyes*
So - on top of being an awesome writer, you're also a hilarious drama queen! Such talent!
I require books as I require air. Sholem Asch
Eat this book - it contains food for your soul!SARK
I LOVE JESUS!
Posted at: 12:57 am on February 21, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
Oh my god I wrote like this long message begging people to read this story because I thought you guys weren't reading it anymore. I guess the mods were just taking a long time to post the messages because I was worried everyone had gotten bored and stopped reading. So yeah I see that's not the case because there are some new comments on here so thanks guys! Just ignore that long dramatic paragraph were I'm begging for readers... that was embarrasing.
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 3:05 am on February 21, 2012
Login to like
it.
4 people like this post.
Reply
39 Clues Alternative Prequel
@SapphireLadybug7: Thanks for your comment! That was sooo nice of you really I'm flattered *blushes*. I haven't written original stories with my own characters yet, I used to when I was younger but they weren't that good because, well, an eight year old really can't write all that good. I don't even know where those stories are anymore. I did write a short story that I posted here on the message boards for a writing contest someone was hosting. It's not a full story like this one it's just one event with one character in first person (I don't even say what my character's name is in the story). It's called "In the forest of fire" if you want to read it, here's the link: http://www.the39clues.com/messageboard/show/15748. I do have an original idea I might write on soon though, I just need to think of more characters and some other stuff. Actually it's funny because two of my teachers when I was in elementary school also asked me to send them signed copies of my first book! If I ever publish a book I'll make sure to write somewhere in the first pages "Yes SapphireLadybug7, this is EmeraldMaze45 from the 39 Clues Message Boards, this book goes for you!" LOL.
I agree book 7 (Harry Potter) is the best! I don't live in the U.S. but I spend a month and a half there every summer. I remember when I was 9 and I was spending the summer in Florida, and it was the night of the 7th book's release. They were releasing it at midnight and you could see the long line of people waiting to buy the book in front of bookstores, Walmart... I wanted to jump in line with everyone else and buy the book as soon as it was released but my mother didn't let me... she said it was too late - bummer! She bought it for me first thing the next morning though which is good. I've reread them a couple of times too I just feel like a walking Harry Potter encyclopedia (sp?) sometimes, but I'm NOTHING compared to my sister. She practically fell in love with those books, today she still reads 2 books at the same time: one other book and a Harry Potter book. She always has a HP book by her bedside and I've lost count of how many times she read each of them!!
I haven't read the Hunger Games, but I really want to. My sister read them and loved the 3 books. I see it's very popular, everyone here on the message boards is always talking about the Hunger Games so I want to read them. I have a long list of books I want to read first though, I take such a long time to read books nowadays because I never have time because of school work.
I apologize to your cat Sadie!! I didn't want to steal your attention LOL. I wish I had a cat, my mother doesn't let me have pets which is sad but oh well. By the way please ignore that long dramatic comment I wrote begging people to read this. I thought no one was reading anymore because the mods took a long time to post the comments you guys left. I just got a bit scared people had gotten bored and left, so ignore the post, I was being a drama queen!
Anyways thanks so so so so so much :) I'll post chapter 5 right away you guys tell me what you think!
Here your dreams are sweet,
And tomorrow brings them true,
Here is the place where I love you.
Posted at: 3:39 am on February 21, 2012
Login to like
it.
6 people like this post.
Reply