Title: From Thy Kingdoms Come - Chapter 3 Author: Aquamarine Angel Edited by: Crescent Moon E-mail Address: aquamarineangel@sailormoon.com Rated: G _____________________________________________________________________ Jon was bored. He really needed something to do. If he sat around much longer he'd scream, or worse: resort to spending time with his little sister. That thought gave him an idea. 'Time to go seek havoc against Josie. She won't know what hit her.." His mind was going a thousand miles per hour. What to do to her... Nothing seemed right. He could call up someone she hated and tell him that Josie had a crush on that particular person... NO! To silly and cruel. Spread a rumor? To stupid. Besides he'd already tried that. It had blown up in his face. There must be something he could do that he hadn't already done. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of straining his brain, he thought of the perfect plan. Josie was afraid of snakes and bugs. A new museum had opened up across town. The place had all kinds of slimy reptiles and gruesome insects there. It would be perfect! He would have the pleasure of seeing her squirm. All he had to do was get her in there somehow... - - 10 minutes later - - "I can't believe you. How could you do this to me!?! You know what I think of slimy, crawley things! They give me the heebee-jeebees!" Josie exclaimed, as Jon pushed her through the doors of the bug museum. He still couldn't get over the fact that the museum was call Creepy Creatures-R-Us. It was just too lame for him to comprehend. Why was the museum named after a popular toy store? (Toys-R-Us) The snakes and things aren't for sale, after all. "Come on. Don't be such a sissy. I need some help with my science project," he said, cruelly. Josie hated being called a sissy. She'd do anything to make him take it back. Even if it meant coming face to face with her greatest fear. He knew it was wrong to use this weakness against her, but he did it anyway. "Don't give me that nonsense, Jon! I'm your twin. I very well know that your project is on building rockets. I can't believe Mom bought that story you fed her! And I am NOT a sissy!!" Josie shot back. The way she said it, let Jon know that he was in hot water. He was going to be punished by Josie, one way or another. He knew he shouldn't have over-looked the fact that women always got their revenge. Too late now. "You aren't going to tell Mom, are you?" Jon asked timidly. Mom wouldn't be pleased if she found out... "Why would I tell? I know where you live," Josie replied innocently. She batted her eyelashes as she said this. With her ebony black hair, pale skin and deep ocean-blue eyes, Jon was having trouble deciding whether his sister looked more like an angel or a demon. Seeing that this was his sister we're talking about, it's very obvious as to what he was leaning towards. Jon, himself, looked very much like his sister. Same hair color, same pallor of skin, same eye color. His hair was of course worn a lot shorter than his sisters, who wore hers in a long braid that fell down to the middle of her back. His facial features were much more masculine as well. To be sure, they were almost identical. He, however, didn't find himself to be demonic. As they walked up to the ticket counter, Jon found himself fascinated with the person that was selling the tickets. She was very tall, and very beautiful. Her hair was a very strange color: greenish-black. Her face was perfectly tanned, with very flattering features. What caught his attention the most was her eyes. The shade was the most amazing color he had ever seen in his life. It took him a while to place the shade as magenta. When Jon and his sister reached the front desk, it took Jon a while to find his wits. The beautiful young woman seemed amused, but she didn't make any comment. She just accepted there money, Josie handed over her five dollars in a very grudging manner, and gave them their admittance tickets. Just before Jon and Josie entered the first room of the exhibit, the enchanting lady called out after them, "Watch where you step. Just call for me if you need any help." Her voice sounded so kind and wise. Jon suddenly found himself feeling very much in love. The woman didn't seem much older than him... Just a little more mature. His sister would say that that wasn't hard to do, if he voiced his opinion. He kept quiet. The first room was full of dead insects, pinned to the wall, and shed snake skins, on display. Jon found the display more interesting than he had thought he would be. He had only come to make his sister suffer. Now he figured that maybe he'd enjoy the exhibit itself as well. Not to mention, he was looking forward to seeing the gorgeous young lady again at the end of the exhibit. Josie wasn't to happy with being in a room full of dead things and snake skins, but she wasn't affected to much. She found herself worrying more about what she might find in the next room, than what was in the room she was currently in. After a short while Jon had lost interest in the first display, and led Josie into the next room. What they found made them both a bit uncomfortable. Josie more-so than Jon, of course. The atmosphere itself was of dread in that room. The lights were as dim as they could possibly be without having the room completely dark. To make things worse, real live snakes were crawling around EVERYWHERE. There were snakes on either side of them, of every kind that could possibly be imagined. The snakes were separated from the walkway by sheets of transparent glass. If they didn't look hard enough it was hard to tell that there was anything separating the snakes from them. A wave of paranoia and fear swept over the both of them. Something was definitely going on. Both Jon and Josie could feel it in the air. "J-jon? Lets g-go," Josie stammered. "Yeah. Um... Good idea," Jon agreed quickly. All of a sudden he wasn't in such a hurry to scare the wits out of his sister. They both turned around and began to retrace their steps. Unfortunately for them, they never made it out of the room. END OF CHAPTER 3