Novus Vita - Chapter 15

Saturday morning

Light shone through Matthew Tream's windows into his eyes causing him to wake up. He groggily groaned and turned his head to to one side to see his radio clock. It was almost noon. He had slept in but at least it was the weekend so no harm done. I slowly crawled out of bed and wandered over to his kitchen where he opened his pantry and grabbed a box of cereal. He opened his fridge, grabbed a carton of milk then grabbed a bowl and poured the two ingredients together. He carried the bowl over to his dining table and, with a metal spoon in one hand, began to eat the breakfast.

When he was half way done he reached over for his closed laptop and opened it up and turned it on. He finished the rest of the cereal in one go and pulled his laptop in front of him when it eventually did boot up. The first thing he did was he opened his mail client to see if he has any new messages, which is what he always does first thing in the mornings on his laptop. He downloaded the new messages and noticed that one of the messages took a little longer than usual to get. He opened it up and saw that it had several images attached to it and found out that it was from Sarah.

He loaded one of the photos and was taken aback by what he saw. It was an amulet. It looked exactly like the same one that James showed him the day before. Except it was different somehow. The silver chain and the gold frame appeared to be the same but instead of a dark blue gem in the centre, there was a dark red gem. Matt then read the text that Sarah had typed to accompany the images:

Hello Matt, it turns out that there was something in those ruins besides that stone statue. After the light blinded us, my friend Sheri who was with me found this on the ground. She kept this from me until now. Something has happened to her since she found the amulet. She has started turning into a dragon, just like you said the boy was. Except instead of blue, like you described, her scales are red, just like the gem in the amulet. I think that this amulet is the same as the amulet that the boy found and I would appreciate if you can somehow get us in contact with him as soon as possible.

From Sarah Cook

It didn't take long for Matt to process that information. He immediately dived for his phone that was next to his laptop and opened up his contacts list. He scrolled down to James' number and pressed 'call'. He raised the phone to his right ear and waited. And waited. And waited. There was no answer on the other side. He really needed to tell James that he wasn't alone with this. Out of desperation he tried to call him again. He heard the ringing tone again but this time somebody actually picked up. "Hello?" asked Matt to the person who had picked up.

"Who is this?" asked the person. It sounded like a woman. Matt assumed that this was James' mother. But why did she pick up instead of James?

"Professor Matthew Tream, James came and spoke with me yesterday down at the university. Who is this?"

"This is James' mother," replied the woman. Looks like Matt was right, however something was wrong.

"Can I speak with James please?" asked Matt.

As a reply, all he could hear was silence with occasional whimpering. "Umm," started to speak James' Mom. Matt could hear in her speech that she was very distraught but something. Maybe now wasn't the best time to call James. "Now might not be the best time..."

"What happened?" asked Matt with a sudden tone of worry in his voice.

"Before I tell you I need to know that I should trust you."

"Why? Seriously, what happened? If it's something to do with the fact that he has been turning into a dragon then don't worry, I know. James showed me when he met me."

"Oh, okay," she said, calming down slightly but still very panicked. "Umm, this morning he ended up finishing his change into a dragon."

"So, he's a full dragon now?" asked Matt curiously.

"Yeah..." she replied, talking quietly as if she was silently distraught and troubled by this. The reason for this was because James wounded his mother when the final stage of the transformation began. She didn't want to talk about it much.

"What's wrong?" asked Matt.

"A couple of hours after he passed out from the end of the transformation, a group of four men broke into our house and kidnapped him!" She replied, extremely hysterical by the end and almost ending up breaking into tears. She did shed a tear but she didn't completely break down.

"What?! Have you called the police?"

"How could the police help? He's a dragon now. If they find a dragon then everyone will know what has happened to him!"

"Okay, okay, calm down, what can we do then?"

"I don't think there's anything we can do!" cried James' mother, beginning to break down into tears.

Several seconds passed before Matt could come up with something to say to be able to settle down James' mother. "Listen," he began with a calm voice, "I'm sure he's going to be alright. He's a dragon, I'm pretty care he can take care of himself. We'll try and find a way to..." He stopped when he noticed something. If James was kidnapped by this unknown group possibly because he's a dragon now, which is the most likely reason, then wouldn't Sheri be targeted as well? "Oh crap," he said under his breath when he pieced all of this together, "listen, I have to go. Just stay calm and we'll figure this out."

"Okay..." replied James' mother shakily before Matt hung up the phone. She wasn't as distraught as she was before when she remembered that her son is a freaking dragon now! Yeah, he can take care of himself, no problem.

Matt fiddled around his phone nervously trying to get to Sarah's number on his contact list. He found her near the top and dialled the number and waited. Like before nobody picked up but, also like before, he tried again. However after about five attempts of reaching her number nobody still picked up the phone. "Dammit," cursed Matt as he gave up on trying to call her.


Meanwhile, back in England in the evening

Sarah arrived back at her apartment block after buying some food to restock her fridge. Sheri had been eating all of her food very quickly and she soon almost ran out. Sheri had been staying in Sarah's apartment all day, since she arrived in the morning from outside Sarah's window. She walked into her apartment block's staircase and began to ascend to her room. "I hope Sheri hasn't messed with my stuff," she said to herself as she climbed the stairs, "too much," she added when she realised that her best friend would not be able to help herself from messing with her apartment. Sheri liked to annoy her and the best way to do that is to disobey her.

Sarah sighed as she finally arrived at the door to her apartment. There was something wrong though. She reached for her keys only to discover that the door was left slightly ajar. "What the," she said to herself as she opened the door. "I hope Sheri didn't leave." If she gets seen in public and caught then Sarah wouldn't know what to do.

She walked into her apartment and found that everything was in complete shambles. Everything that was anywhere was now everywhere. "Dammit Sheri!" yelled Sarah as she began to examine the damage. "I told you not to touch anything!" She stopped and began to worry when she noticed that Sheri was nowhere to be found. "Sheri?" she called out nervously.

Sarah didn't know what to think. Her best friend Sheri had simply vanished out of her apartment. "Sheri? This isn't funny any more. Please come out." Still no answer. "Please." Sarah began to get very anxious and nervous by the end of her sentence.

The silent tension that Sarah gained from her destroyed and empty apartment was suddenly broken by the sound of her phone ringing. She walked over to the noise cautiously and slowly picked up the phone. She accepted the call and raised the phone to her ear. "Hello?" asked Sarah to whoever it was that was calling her.

"Hello? Sarah? Oh thank God, are you okay? It's Matt."

Sarah was a bit less nervous now when she found out that she was talking to someone she knew, or at least kind of knew. "Oh, hi Matt. Yeah, I'm fine. Is something wrong?"

"Where is Sheri?" asked Matt bluntly.

"Ah, so you read my email. Do you think that the amulet she found is..."

Matt quickly cut her off mid sentence to get back to the point as to why he was calling in the first place. "Not now, this is serious. Where is Sheri?"

Sarah was taken slightly aback by Matt's sudden rudeness but he sounded serious so she let it slide. "I'm not really sure. She was here before I left and I guess..."

Matt cut her off again. "You mean you left her alone?" Sarah was starting to get annoyed by Matt's sudden interruptions and was about to snap back at him but he interrupted yet again. "Listen to me carefully. Remember that boy I told you about that was turning into a dragon?"

"Yeah," replied Sarah, "what about him?"

"His name is James and I was trying to call him a moment to tell him about Sheri but something happened and I couldn't reach him."

"What happened?"

"I called but he didn't pick up. Instead his mother picked up. She said that a few hours ago he had completed the transformation and was now a full dragon before he passed out. She then went on to say that, when James woke up, a group of men broke into his house and kidnapped him."

"Kidnapped? Why?"

"I don't know exactly why but I think it's safe to assume that whoever it was, they did it because he's now a dragon."

"Oh okay then," Sarah began to speak as she assessed the situation in her head. She was worried. Another group is involved and now has taken James for whatever reason. "Wait a second," started Sarah when she reached a conclusion, "you don't mean that Sheri might have been..."

"Yes. I'm afraid that if Sheri has disappeared from your place then she must have been taken by the group responsible for James' kidnapping. For what reason, I still don't know. What I'm confused about is why take her? She wasn't even a full dragon yet and, wait, hello?" Matt stopped speaking when he heard a thud on the other side of the phone. "Hello? Sarah? Are you still there?"

Sarah had dropped her phone in utter shock and disbelief. Her best friend, hell, her only friend in the world, had been taken away by an unknown group. She collapsed onto her knees and began to tear up, shattered by the realisation as to what has occurred. "Sheri?" she said to herself as the grief took hold of her. "Don't leave me."