Chapter Four
Dear Gloom Journal,
I’m writing now just to clear my head before I do what I’m about to do. Things are bad, and I need to lay out the events of the day to make sense of them. The War of the Battle Familiars tournament started off like I said it would. Trevor drew a bye in Round One, but I beat Vito and Kiki did the same with Lorelai. Then Lorelai and Vito were set to fight in an Elimination Match. But Vito forfeited, claiming that Precious had been too badly burned by Ryuki to continue. This set me against Lorelai, and I beat her when Squidious mind-blasted me instead of going after Ryuki.
Then Kiki fought Trevor. It wasn’t much of a fight. That Which Shall Not Be Named shut down parts of Boris’ brain pretty quickly, forcing him into a coma. Professor Tanaka called Trevor as the winner. But then Trevor’s creature went berserk. These obscene tentacles shot out of its box, going straight for Kiki. They caressed her face at first, stimulating the pleasure centers of her brain. Her eyelids fluttered as if she were actually enjoying it. Then she dropped to her knees. It all happened so quickly. The thing latched its suckers onto her temples. Her eyes bulged and went blank. And that’s when the screaming started.
Six hours and about a dozen Mentalist examinations later, they told me that Kiki had stabilized. She was suffering from a little brain swelling, they said, but they stopped the needles before they made it into the brain tissue. That’s right. Trevor’s beast was actually boring holes into Kiki’s head in an attempt to physically suck out her brains through tiny, needle-sharp straws that extended from the suckers on its tentacles. This thing was going to eat my girlfriend’s brain, and they haven’t expelled Trevor for bringing it to the fight!
Okay.
Calm down. I need to be calm to do what I’m going to do next.
Back
to the story.
It was only after the doctors made me go home that I realized Ryuki was missing.
I hadn’t seen him since I left him with the Familiar vets to go watch Kiki’s
fight. I looked everywhere, but I couldn’t find him. I used the pitiful
skills I’ve developed at Familiar Empathy, but I’ve only been able
to determine that he’s scared and in pain. I’m not that good at Prognostication,
but I have a feeling that I might be getting a visit from Trevor’s friends
in the Cult of the Olde Ones before the night’s over. So now I’m
going to do what needs to be done. I’m going to close this Gloom Journal,
and I’m going to meditate. I’m going to perfect Professor Tanaka’s
Dragon Mind technique. I’m going to use it to find Ryuki, and rescue him
from whatever trap they’ve got him in. And then...
One last note to my friends on the police force: If you find Trevor Hitchcock’s
body somewhere, I’m probably going to be your man.
