"Katherine. This is your last chance." It was that same mermaid that had been in her dreams for the last few days. Her horrible cartilage teeth gleamed translucently creepy as her enchanting voice spoke. "You have been given three; just as the others were. Will you truly decide to stay cursed as you ancestors chose to be?"((She's only had 2 other dreams about the mermaid right? or maybe only two where the mermaid spoke?)) Everything about her was enchanting but her face, slashed across the cheeks with red gills and those horrible teeth coupled with eyes that seemed to drill through Katherine in their stormy intensity.
"Wha- what do you mean?" Katherine managed to stutter out, her own voice sounding torn up and gravely in comparison to the creature's.
"Will you forsake your voice, your birthright, and your power with it, just as they did, so that you can live among the humans? Live cursed without song and forsaken by the best world?" The creature gestured impossibly beautifully behind and beside her. For the first time Katherine realized that she was standing up to her waist in water, the waves headed for the sandy beach behind her for some reason parting around the mermaid so the water they stood in was completely without movement.

((I'm not sure what to put here Nausheen... I'll have to think of something. K?))

De 1ne St[♥:]r Pr!nc:$$ N[♥:]ush"n wrote: "((she 's not good with feet))tee hee"

((LOL))

She banged on the door with all her pent up fury hoping to force it open with the sheer force of her desire to escape.The door remained shut, she went down on her knees hugging the door and sobbed for quite a while...still no one came and the door remained closed.

'What am I to do' she said, 'I don't want to sing, they all want me to and it's just so wrong. I can't allow myself to be forced this way.'

While she was engrossed in this internal turmoil, she heard a voice calling her name from very far away, it was a strange sweet sound and oddly had no words to it..it was just a melody floating into her mind and flooding her senses. She started singing the ancient mer song of her ancestors......

the ocean was really blue, and she was gliding on a sunbeam across the water as it rippled, she felt a hand on her hand and looked down...

((she 's not good with feet))tee hee

((...'which seemed 10 feet high'??

No one stopped her this time and she kept walking on. She found herself infront of a large door which seemed 10 feet high. She looked for a handle, the door had many small squares on it and all of them had a knob thing on them. She looked for a key hole and found none.

She continued down the corridor, clenching and unclenching her fists, hating everyone. She gritted her teeth.

((cool!))

She stood up and started stomping out of the room, pushing people out of her way so she could get to the still open door. Someone grabbed her arm, as if comming out of a daze and she pulled away from him. "Just leave me alone!" she yelled. "Get out of my way!" She was upset and angry and for some reason felt betrayed, even though she couldn't remember ever thinking of Kevin as a friend in the first place. She was so angry that if someone else had interrupted her she would have attacked them.
She walked out the open door unaware that behind her there was a hallway where the people who had heard her sing had obeyed her orders and stepped out of her way...

"Why should I care what your mom says, she is just like the rest of them!" said Kathy.

"Where's the door?" she asked him, "this is the most terrible thing that has ever happened to me...I feel like I am being tortured just cos I can sing. And I don't even do that anymore, I have just forgotten..." she railed, her voice rising up to the ceiling of the white room. She wanted to scream some more but couldn't think of anything else to say...it all seemed so unimaginable that these cultists could control her this way and just keep her here without any care in the world.

Mad, angry, and also hungry, she stared at a far point in the room, until Kevin shook her and said "hey! you must trust the old man, he knows a lot about spell singers."

She didn't believe him so he continued, "My mom said he can help you if you stop fighting"

She was not given any visitors for several hours and it was long until her dinner, so she did the only logical thing to do, she slept.

In this dream, she was so peaceful. She was a little girl again and was out in a field spiining amongst the flowers. Whether or not it was a flashback, Kathy didn't care. This was one of the first times in years that she had felt this happy. Then, a hand reached out of her out of nowhere, and Kathy turned to see her visitor.

"Daddy!", she screamed, running into his arms. They hugged and laughed. Kathy's younger self got on his back and they were both still laughing. Kathy's dad started to walk to the house.

...

Kathy looked up at her dad, playing the piano like Beethoven. Better then Beethoven.((Maybe dad was a spellsinger)) Kathy loved her dad's songs and did the thing she loved to do when he played. She sang.

Music filled the neighboorhood and people would go outside just to listen to the beautiful harmony of a man and his daughter. Even with all this commotion, Kathy didn't care, neither did her father, they just kept on doing what they did best, the only audience they cared about was mom, and them.

They music started to blur and everything started to fade away. Kathy knew what was happening.

"NO don't go!", she screamed,"Don't leave me again..." She started to sob lightly, her older self again. She stopped crying and looked up, realizing it wasn't a dream anymore. There she saw at least 50 people, trying to cram themselves in the room.

Kevin walked up and whispered to Kathy, "Did you know that you sing in your sleep?"

They took her to another room, this one like that last room she had been held in had no windows, but it was a stark white room with nothing but a table and some chairs in it.
When she aroused the muffin man in old clothes was watching her. "Sing something for me please." he may have said please, but Katherine could tell keeping silent wasn't a choice she was given.
"I haven't sung anything since my father died several years ago. I'm not about to start doing it now, just because a bunch of cultists believe I'm some kind a special... thing." She kept her voice low and clam as she said that.
"You know, that if the women's rights movement was happening today they would be calling it a cult?" The man asked. Katherine didn't even look up from her hands (that were no longer tied she noticed)to answer. "I don't see how this could possibly be the Women's Right's Movement."
"Very well then." The old man hissed. He was very angry, she could tell. He turned and left the room by a door that was pushed open from the outside, and then closed seamlessly into the white wall. She was still a prisoner, and this time, she was completely alone. Not even Kevin was here to give her the comfort of something familiar.

Kathy was really confused and scared now when she was being led by the couple in business suits...she tried to free herself but she couldn't shake their iron grip. She fainted...

The man nodded and smiled. He gestured to the couple in busiuness suits and they came toward Katherine and started untying her from the bed. The man and Kevin's parents walked out.
Kevin stood in the door and blocked the man and woman who were leading Katherine out. "What is going on here?" he asked.
"Move, please." The woman said to him, ignoring his question.
Kevin glanced at Katherine. "I found her, don't I have any right to know at least what you are doing?"
"No" Said the man, and pushed him out of the doorway and led a struggeling Katherine past where Kevin Lay sparwled on the floor.

she narrowed her eyes. "I have no idea what youre talking about, but if you involve anyone else in this illegal little kidnapping of yours, i guarantee i wont cooperate any more,"

"hrrrmmmmm" he angrily cleared his throat, "you don't know how valuable you are to us, almost precious beyond measure...we're not going to let you go so easily until you tell us how we can go back to who we were, hmm?"
he gave her a meaningful look as if she knew exactly what he was referring to.

"why are you doing this?" she demanded. "Im of no importance to you."

"Now, now. There is no need to panic," he said as calm as ever. "So how ould you feel if your friend were to see you scream?", he questined. Before Kathy could answer he continued,"Evelyn is safe for the time being, but we can not promise her well being until you promise to cooperate and control yourself, understood?"

"You are a nasty man, you can't kidnap me and keep me locked up here forever, I will find a way to escape soon...." she shouted at the muffin man, angry he could calmly talk about Evelyn as if it was the most normal thing in the world

"Well, my dear, you certainly didnt let me finish asking my question. let us try again, shall we?"

Harrumphh!", he growled, while managing to keep a glare on Kathy and Kevin at the same time Then, out of the blue, he smiled. "I see your serious answers assuredly," he said with a genuine smile, " So I know that you will be serious when you answer my next question. True you may want to live, but how important is Evelyn and your family to..."

"NO!", Kathy screamed.

"Oh, i am. completely. you can't tell?"

"How about you get serious now, so I can too? he asked.

((nice,,,,))

The muffin man again gave her a peculiar look, she was getting used to his strange ways now and relaxed a little

((arigatoo!))

((ok))

((Well, almost. Hey guys can we do some more of Just an Idea? I really like that one))

((Oh.....yeah......Well she did'ny say anything important...hehehehe....))

((She's still pretending that she doesn't believe in the magic, remember!))

Katherine gulped nervously. "Ummm..."

"if i didnt want to live, i would have offed myself a long time ago, i assure you." she replied, still finding a way to be smart while answering the question at the same time.

"Ouch!" Kevin burst out. The muffin man in the top hat turned to look at him. Katherine had watched Kevin's mom put a finger to her lips to silence him, but when he laughed again she grabbed his ear and twisted it.
"I apologize, My Lord, he will be silent." She sounded worried.
The muffin man looked down his nose at her. "You found her boy?" he asked.
Kevin swallowed and nodded shallowly. He glanced nervosly at Katherine and she noticed that he did look guilty.
The man (he must be someone in charge) she thought (since everyone is treating him like this) He looked back at her. "Well? Do you?"

"maybe you should just tell me the answers now, seeing as im not supposed to get any wrong. this is way more stressful than my finals, you know."

"Harrumphh!", he breathed, not oblivious to the muffled snickering of our spectators."My first question is a not so important question...Do you want to live?"

(( lol ))

"Excellent! that's my girl", the man snorted in excitement as if Kathy had just agreed to something important.

She heard another muffled snicker, as Kevin was trying hard not to giggle

"well, if i dont understand, and i said that i did, i would be lying to you. you want me to lie to you?"

((yup LOL))

(We are making this man really strange. LOL XD)

"You are my ginger bread man, or woman if you prefer, and would like you to answer my questions they way I wnat them answered, do you understand?"

"Not really," sighed Kathy.

"That is EXACTLY what I mean," he stated,"I wanted you to say that you understood."

((Hee hee!!!!!!! I just wanted to say something, since I haven't posted in a while, and it seemed approprate!))

((Janneen hahaha where did you come up with 'why do you smell like muffins...' stuff..it's lol ))

He eyed her coldly. Katherine swallowed and wanted to hunch down in the bed seh still sat in. 'No,' she decided. 'I've had enough of this! I'm not just some helpless kid, and I'm not going to cower in front of some old man who dresses in clothes that are a hundred years older than he is!'
The man looked like he was about to say something, so Katherine turned on the snottieness that she knew she had locked away somewhere and asked, "What do you want, Muffin Man?"
She heard a muffeled noise from behind the old man and looked to see Kevin standing there, trying to hide a laugh, with his parents and another unknown waman and man wearing business suits.

"Why do you smell like muffins, sir?" The words had escaped her lips before she knew what she had said.

The Councilsman came wearing a long frock coat and a top hat. He was old and grey, and smelled of muffins. He came into the room where Kathy had been kep in for the last few days....Kevin's dad got him a straight backed chair and he sat on it ooking down at Kathy from a great height. Kathy who was feeling really nervous fidgeted with her blanket and kept avoiding his eyes. The councilsman had piercing blue eyes and he seemed to be looking right to the bottom of her musicless soul.

He cleared his throat with a big noise...*AHHRRRRMMMM...**

Kathy panicked,...

(( hey keep it coming! ))

((Lets see, I have to leave pretty soon, Maybe I'll come up with something.))

Katherine was woken from the dream by a bright light suddenly flaring through the romm she was locked up in. Kevin's mom was standing there. She looked Katherine over and scowled. She has a bitter face, she decided.
"You're a mess."
"How do you expect me to be all that nice and neat if the only times I've been out of this room are when I've used the toilet?"
Kevin's mom ignored the question. "This won't work. We've got someone comming to see you today."

((cool DE, do you wanna write something BTW ...?))

((Another dream everybody!! I had this one last night!!! happy Halloween by the way!!!
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/5096...
))