Mister Monday: Chapter Six

[pangolin20]

Chapter Five | Table of Contents | Chapter Seven (Part I)

Vermaanti: A good day everyone, and welcome back to Mister Monday. Last time—

Scales: I’ve got a new planning!

Vermaanti: Why?

Scales: Because I wanted to shake up the order of commentators a little, so I put the list into a randomiser, and it came out that you and Corneille Blanche needed to switch places on this book.

Vermaanti: Fine by me, I guess. What’s the new planning?

Scales:

Chapter 6	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 7	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 8	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 9	Vermaanti
Chapter 10	Vermaanti
Chapter 11	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 12	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 13	Vermaanti
Chapter 14	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 15	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 16	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 17	Vermaanti
Chapter 18	Vermaanti
Chapter 19	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 20	Vermaanti
Chapter 21	Vermaanti
Chapter 22	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 23	Vermaanti
Chapter 24	Vermaanti
Chapter 25	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 26	Vermaanti
Chapter 27	Vermaanti
Chapter 28	Corneille Blanche
Chapter 29	Vermaanti

 

Vermaanti: Well, I’ll be off, then. See you in chapter 9! (leaves)

(Corneille Blanche comes in)

Corneille Blanche: It’s nice to be back so soon, I must say. Scales, will this be the last change of planning?

Scales: Yes, it certainly will be.

Corneille Blanche: Let me begin, then. So, last time, Monday’s Noon came after Arthur with a pack of Fetchers. This time, we’ll have a fight scene!

 

We open on black smoke “roll[ing] across the ceiling”, from the desk Noon just set on fire. A fire alarm sounds outside, “followed a second later by the whoop-whoop of the evacuation siren.” The Fetchers rush into the library, excited at being let in. Noon points at the shelves, and they “bound[] forward”, many sniffing the floor, as they look for “their prey. Arthur.”

Arthur hasn’t waited for them, though. He’s already at the back door. It’s locked, but there is a release system in a glass box, “plastered with warning signs about alarms and only being used in the event of fire.” There is a fire, so Arthur breaks the box with his backpack. The glass is safety glass, thankfully, so it doesn’t splinter, but instead forms “tiny clumps”. He reaches in with his left hand and pushes the button. He says he does it with that hand because he doesn’t want to let go of the Key, which he holds in his right hand. “Somehow it help[s] him breathe”, which he really needs right now. He can hear the Fetchers “growling and grunting” behind him as they race along the corridors, and stop at the intersections to “sniff out his path.” Oof, I can only imagine how panic-inducing and scary this must be…

Well, nothing happens when he pushes the button. He punches it in again with a trembling hand. Again nothing. He kicks against the door, but again nothing. He kicks again, and now, “a red flame [runs] around the door frame. The same rich, deep red of Noon’s fiery sword.” Well, that explains that. And it seems Noon has absolutely no intention of holding back with Arthur.

Noon shouts to the Fetchers that Arthur is trying the back door. Arthur immediately guesses that Noon has magically sealed the door. But “Arthur [has] his own magic”. Or, he says, at least something with power, even if he doesn’t know how to use it. “The Key”. So he does what a Key is for: he touches the door with the tip, and shouts ‘Open!’ There’s a “flash of white light”, a burst of heat, and the door explodes open and a new alarm sounds. Suitably dramatic, but hey, Arthur can escape! He runs onto “the fire stairs”, and goes down the first two steps, before he jumps back the way he came. He says that he needs to close the doors or “the Fetchers [will] catch him for sure.” That might be true, but doing this also risks the Fetchers getting you. He also wonders if he’ll be able to make it in time.

He jumps at the doors and “slam[s] them shut”, just as two Fetchers jump, too. Arthur is thrown back and the Fetchers try to break through, “yowling and growling as they [try] to grab him.” They rip at his shirt, and buttons fly, but Arthur slashes with the Key and they let go, “screaming horrible high-pitched screams.” And dying, going on Lady Friday.

Anyway, Arthur slams the doors shut again, and cuts across the with the Key, shouting, “Shut! Lock! Close!”. “Whether it [is] the cut or the words”, the doors stay locked, though Arthur can hear the Fetchers run into it. Arthur quickly leaves, because he knows “no doors [will] stop Noon.”

He’s just made it to the alley at the bottom, which also borders “the school refectory”, when there is an explosion above him. He crouches and looks back as “flames jet[] out in all directions”, and the doors fly over his head, “whistling towards the science block a quarter of a mile away.” And he just had to blow the doors out. He clearly does know how to be dramatic, I must say. Noons walks onto the fire stairs, “black smoke rolling out in coils above his head, with the Fetchers crouched around him.” I can just see the movie version of this, and it’s great. Arthur notes that the Fetchers look more like “half-human dogs” now, as their suits are ragged, and their hats have been lost.

Arthur turns to run, but he’s only gone a few metres when he hears the sound of wings. A “cold shadow” passes over his head, and Noon lands in front of him. His wings are spread wide, and he his flaming sword once again, “point[ing it] right at Arthur’s throat.” Well, it can’t get much worse, now can it? I mean, Arthur’s situation has only worsened since the beginning of the book… Anyway, Noon calmly instructs Arthur to give him the Key.

Arthur whispers no, and says it was given to him. It also sought him out after he left it on the oval, and it killed a Fetcher for him. Because of that, I’d say it’s his. Noon calls him a “foolish boy”, and says it was a mistake. He looks at the sun and frowns. Then he tells Arthur to hand the Key over, “circle end first” (presumably to avoid stabbing), and he says “[he hasn’t] got all day.”

Arthur gets an idea from the frown and the way Noon says his last sentence. He pretends to think about handing over the Key, but actually, he looks at his watch. “It was one minute short of one o’clock.” There’s a reason Noon is called “Noon”, after all…

He has hindered himself here, though. After all, he could have come any time from noon, and the time since his arrival can’t have been more than a few minutes. If he’d come earlier, he might already have the Key. On the other hand, there’s still a minute to go, so Noon could easily force Arthur to surrender…

Arthur mumbles he doesn’t know, and he “[d]separately” looks around. The Fetchers are closing in from behind, and he winces at the heat from the flaming sword. It makes sweat drip down his face, and into his eyes. He says that he can at least breathe, though that will probably stop “as soon as he let[s] go of the Key.”

Noon shouts at him to surrender the Key, and Arthur tells him to come and get it. He “[spins] like a discus thrower”, throws the Key at the nearest door and jumps after it. Noon hits him with “[t]he very tip of the flaming sword” on his left arm, “burning a line of intense pain from his shoulder to his elbow.” That’s quite bad, especially since it’s the first time Arthur’s been wounded by Monday’s agents until now. Before now, it might all have been bluffing, but now we can see that they can and do hurt him. Also, that sword does have a lot of destructive power, it seems.

Noon shouts something, but Arthur doesn’t hear. The moment he let go of the Key, his lungs locked up, and now he doesn’t even have the breath “to last a few steps.” Arthur says he expects the Key to bounce off the door so he can pick it up (or get stuck in the door, since it’s quite sharp), but instead, “[it has] flown like a thrown dagger straight through the paper-thin gap between the door and the wall.” Hmmm. That is a very lucky co-incidence indeed, since hitting that gap and throwing the Key through (how thin is it anyway that if fits in the hole?) would not be easy. So I’m quite sure the Key did this itself.

Well, Arthur consequently slams into the door, and once again things go differently than expected. It should have been locked, “but instead of bouncing off and back into the path of Noon’s flaming sword”, he flies through and lands on the floor behind. So the Key unlocked the door for him. How considerate! His “open hand” falls on the Key and he grabs it as tightly as he can. Now he has it again, his breath comes back, and “the burn on his arm fade[s] into a dull ache.” So the Key has healing properties as well. That is certainly nice. But Arthur’s not out of trouble yet, and now he’s closed in even more.

Noon steps in and says there is “no point to [Arthur’s] ridiculous acrobatics.” He gets evil some more, saying that if Arthur’s surrenders the Key, he’ll allow him to crawl away. If he doesn’t, he’ll cut off Arthur’s hand and take it. Eek. Arthur looks at his watch. He sees that it is almost one o’clock. He says his watch is very accurate, and he’s only set it about a week ago. Slowly, he begins to loosen his grip on the Key. As he does so, his lungs begin to lock up again, and the burn on his arm begins to return.

Noon shouts at him to hurry up, as he raises the sword and turns up the flames on it. The second hand is on eleven. Arthur gulps as he realises he is about to “bet his hand—his life—on a guess.” The guess is that Noon can only stay on Earth between “noon and one.” Arthur shouts no, he snatches the Key back, and closes his eyes. The last thing he sees is “Noon’s eyes reflecting red and the flaming sword hurtling down towards his hand.”

But there comes no pain. Arthur opens his eyes, and sees that the hour and minute hand stand on “one o’clock”. Monday’s Noon is gone, and the Fetchers are silent, “though slavering”, inches beyond the door. “[A]n inch from Arthur’s fingers”, there’s a line of ash along the floor. He stares at it and wonders how Noon could have missed him. Presumably because the Key managed to deflect his sword.

The fire alarm is still going and the siren, too. In the distance, Arthur can hear fire engines come toward the school. That’s good to see. Arthur gets up and looks around. (I’d frankly forgotten he was supposed to lie on the floor before this.) He’s in the “back of the refectory”, which is actually the delivery entrance for the kitchen. No one is around, though it is evident from “all the partly made meals, readied ingredients, still-steaming pots and rotating microwave platters” that the staff only just left, when the evacuation alarm sounded. Seems like another fire hazard… Well, at least he’s survived this.

He looks back at the Fetchers. They are now silent, and stand in ranks. Somehow their clothing has been restored, so now they look more like “very ugly men” and less like dogs. One of them steps forward and opens its mouth, “showing large canine teeth.” Then, it “[makes] a curious repetitive grunting noise.” Arthur works out that it’s laughing, and he wonders what there is to laugh about.

Then he notices that the Fetcher is holding the Atlas! He puts his hand to his shirt pocket and only finds “a strip of cloth”. They’ve torn off the pocket when he they nearly got him earlier (presumably different Fetchers than the ones he hit with the Key). Arthur’s also got scratches on his chest, which he didn’t notice earlier. Now they hurt, “[b]ut not as much as losing the Atlas.” Then, the Fetchers all begin to laugh, and Arthur recoils at their breath. He says the obviously think that they’ve won an important victory.

Arthur admits that they have, because he needs the Atlas to make any sense of what is going on. He thinks about how to get it back, and remembers one of their weaknesses was salt. He turns to the shelves, and says there has to be lots of salt, because this is a “commercial kitchen”. He runs along the shelves, holding the Key in one hand while rummaging around with the other. “Sugar, four different sorts of flour, spices of all kinds, other grains, dried fruit… salt!” There’s “a big tub of regular salt and a small sack of rock salt.”

Arthur decides to put the Key in his belt. His asthma comes back, but he can still feel “some ease” from it, so he thinks that having it close might be better than nothing. He puts the rock salt in his backpack, and then opens the tub of salt, throwing away the lid. It is “two-thirds full of fine white salt.” That ought to be more than enough, I think. Arthur takes the tub in his left hand, and grabs a fistful of salt in his right.

Then he goes back to the door, “wheezing and panting a little, but prepared for battle.” He thinks that if he can surprise them, and throw the salt over their front rank, he might be able to grab the Atlas while whatever happens to them, happens to them. “At the back of his mind”, a doubting question appears: What if the salt only annoys the Fetchers, and as soon as he’s out, they’ll tear him to pieces? Arthur ignores that question, and forces himself to focus on getting the Atlas back.

He reaches the end of the shelves. He gulps, “[takes] as deep a breath as he [can]”, and jumps out, “screaming and throwing salt.” And there, the chapter ends.

Well, that was quite enjoyable. See you next time, as we catch up with the “epidemic” subplot. Until then!

 

Comments

[kalinara]

I was wondering, do you have an intro post for your co-sporkers? You might have posted something about them earlier, and I missed/forgot, but I'm very curious about them.

[pangolin20]

I actually haven't! I'll be making a post with basic profiles soon, and I'll link it then.

Of course, I'd be more than willing to put up a Q&A session here, if you'd like that!

[kalinara]

Either sounds fine with me!

[pangolin20]

I'd rather go for the Q&A; I've been wanting to do something like this for a very long time already!