Emily The Strange_ The Lost Days Part 25

GAE:.

I HOPE YOU TRUST HER.

ME:.

ME TOO.

GAE:.

ARE YOU READY.

ME:.

AHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHHA.

GAE:.

BE SERIOUS.

ME:.

IM VERY SERIOUS.

GAE:.

I KNOW.

And the door clicked open.

I think I was expecting to see Great-Aunt Emma. But the room is empty. Of ghosts, I mean. It's full of shelves and shelves holding jars of blackrock. Jars that have dates on them. Dates that go back CENTURIES. And notebooks. Notebooks full of detailed information on centuries' worth of experiments.

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Experiments involving the black rock.

And behind the shelves, on all the walls, and even on the ceiling, tiny handwriting. I still have MUCH more to read, but here's what I learned in the past half hour: 1. Hundreds of years ago, my family and Attikol's were in a bitter feud that had been raging on for decades.

2. They were feuding over owners.h.i.+p of the liquid black rock, which both families believed to have amazing and...unusual properties.

3. My family had been using it mainly for scientific-experimentation-type purposes, whereas Attikol's family had been selling it as a cure-all in their traveling medicine show.

4. Sometime in the 1620s, my family won the rights to the black rock in an epic game of Primero Calamita, which was a VERY early version of...that's right. Calamity Poker.

5. Attikol's family stood by the outcome of that game for about 200 years.

6. But during that time, Attikol's family legend was getting more and more...fictionalized.

7. So by the time Attikol's great-great-great-grandjerk started up the feud again, he didn't even know what they had actually been fighting over, 200 years prior.

8. And by the time the family Destiny had been handed down to Attikol, the story had been completely mangled. Like a game of Operator played over 400 years. By a bunch of half-wits.

9. So Attikol doesn't know Great-Aunt Emma was his ancestral enemy. He just started coming to Blackrock about 13 years ago because he liked it here. Town officials easily bribed, good audiences for the gun and doll show, great Potion sales, etc.

10. But Great-Aunt Emma had been keeping tabs on him, and when she saw that he was headed to Blackrock, she beigeified the El Dungeon, to disguise it.

11. And then made her arrangements to have letters sent to me and Schneider 13 years later.

12. And then died.

13. And it goes to show just how bright Attikol is, that all these years later, and even with the Moon Child working for him, he still doesn't have a clue.

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Pretty great stuff, huh? I may not know my real name, but I'm busting with family pride.

Also, I am now more worried than ever about Attikol seeing Emma's building without its protective beigeifications.

Also, I have a crazy, possibly desperate idea how to get rid of Attikol once and for all.

Later Molly had already made friends with all the construction workers at the El Dungeon and was getting antsy, so I took her upstairs with me to pay Schneider a visit at Crazy Vet Hilda's. The two of them were drinking tea in her kitchen. And being crawled over by 13 or so former alley cats. And having a conversation. It's beyond me how he can understand her. Clearly a case of hereditary mental oddness.

As soon as we came in she started on the nonsense.

HILDA:.

Flu loathe book must bite cold lemming!

ME:.

Yes, it...must.

SCHNEIDER:.

She says you both look just like old Emma. Wow, Earwig, I didn't know you had a twin. Is she named after an insect, too?

ME:.

That's very witty, Schneider. Molly, meet Mayor Schneider, professional laugh riot.

H:.

Postmark brewery ghoul seems adverbial!

ME:.

Totally adverbial...Hey, Molly, why don't you go upstairs with Hilda and take the tour?...So, listen, Schneider. I really need to ask you one last favor. You know how to play Calamity Poker?

S:.

Oh no, I could never afford to play even one game.

ME:.

Well that's great, because...wait, what?

S:.

I've never played it. Anyway, it takes years to learn all the rules.

ME:.

No way, man, I learned it in a few days. S: What? Who taught you? I heard you have to go through some kind of blood ritual first, so you can be an honorary relative of Attikol's.

ME:.

Ewwwwwwwwwww!

S:.