The Crystal 2 by Jones M (reading cloud ebooks .txt) 📕

Erick, Selena and Justin were in that room.

Oh no.

My form instantly tensed at their presence. I could not bear to look at them. I feared the expressions I knew they had on their faces. 

I looked up momentarily, seeing I was right. They were angry, repulsed and hurt.

I soon found myself wishing for the cell rather than being near the three of them. I could only imagine how my bandmates were feeling.

"I--" Zane went to speak, but he was cut off.

"We have a problem," Erick started, surprising me. I thought he was going to start yelling at Zane and me for beating Emery.

"Emery has turned evil."

I almost collapsed at the news. 

I could not believe my ears. I went to ask Erick to repeat what he said, but his expression told me it was what I heard. My eyes bulged out of their sockets as tears threatened to spill out of my eyes.

I was right. We had broken her.

I could only assume what had happened after Zane and I had left Emery in her suite. After all the words that we had told her... after all the punches and kicks we had given her... 

It shouldn't have been a surprise. I shouldn't have been feeling the heavy sadness and fear I felt for everyone I knew. Guessing how Emery would feel was one thing, but thinking about it until someone tells you that your thoughts are true is another.

Oh crap. Emery was broken enough to turn evil.

I had turned her evil.

"Did you guys have anything to do with it?"

"What do you mean, Erick?" I asked the king once I cleared my throat.

"There was a broken vial found in her room. It had the remnants of a potion. We investigated it and realized it was a potion that could turn a witch evil." 

Zane and I gasped at the same time. We looked at each other, and I realized that even though we didn't give her the vial, we had played a part in how she currently was.  

When we were beating Emery, we called her out on her 'lies'. I had a feeling what we said to her pushed her to become the person she currently was.  

"Guys, we didn't give her the vial. Either way, we're sorry for what we did to her," I said.

"Save it. We're not here for your apology," Erick spoke to me with a glare. His stare hurt, but I knew we deserved it.

"Okay, this is not going to help us," Justin spoke. "We need to go back to Crystalia where we can deal with the problem without people listening in on us. We could search for her with the magic locator spell."

The what?

"Alright. We'll go," Erick said. Zane and I looked at each other before facing the people in front of us.

"And you guys are coming with us," Selena added, confusing Zane and me.

"Why?" I asked her.

"We need as many witches present as possible if we want to contain an evil Emery," she answered. "Who knows how much she has been bottling up for her evil self to release."

I shuddered at the thought as we teleported away from the area.

Third Person's P.O.V

Selena, Erick, Zane, Harry and Justin teleported to Crystalia. They entered the main study room of the castle where Logan, Ethan, Elizabeth and Liam were waiting for them.

Zane and Harry stopped at the sight of their bandmates, seeing that they were angry.

"You bastards!" yelled Logan as he charged at Harry. Before Harry could mumble an apology, Logan had jumped on him and started punching him. The first punch momentarily rendered Harry unconscious.

"Logan!" the rest yelled as Liam went to stop him from further injuring Harry. He wrapped his arms around Logan's torso, pulling him away from Harry. It was then that he realized that Harry did not fight back.

"Why don't you fight back?" Logan yelled at Harry with a glare, thrashing against Liam's hold. "You beat up Emery. You ruined the band! Why the hell are you holding back on me?"

"Logan!" Ethan yelled at him. "We have bigger problems than us right now. Don't you remember we have to look for Emery?"

Thunder rumbled outside the castle just as the wind outside picked up its pace, ceasing the ongoing fight.

"Is it me or is it suddenly windy?" Selena asked, rubbing her palms over her biceps.

The Queen looked outside the open window, noticing that the clouds were moving at an unusually fast pace. She walked out of the room, the rest following her in confusion. The Queen made her way to the top of the castle. She stopped at the sight that met her eyes.

The clear day sky was immediately turning into a cloudy one. The clouds moved towards a converging point far in the north. Thunder rumbled again just as the clouds that were near the mountains began to darken.

"I think I know where she is," Liam said as they faced what they saw.

Minutes later, everyone was back at the main study room.

"What is Emery planning?" Erick asked with frightened eyes.

"Well, she did say something about her revenge plans," Liam replied with a shudder.

"Apparently, she was not kidding," Logan said, mirroring Erick's expression. "What are we going to do? Erick's dream might as well become a reality that we are not prepared for!"

"Logan, calm down," Selena told him. "These are just the effects of a potion she ingested. We just need to make a potion that would remedy that and she'll be back to normal."

"What if she doesn't want to be normal?" Erick asked a question that the rest wanted to avoid.

"Erick, Emery is not Eva," the Queen said with a glare directed towards him.

"Yes, but unlike Eva, Emery has reasons to remain evil. We betrayed her and I know that her evil self would want vengeance."

The Queen remained quiet as she thought over his son's words. Erick was right, and she had no idea of how to answer his question.

"Okay, but we will still make the potion. If it works, we'll place her here and keep a close eye on her. If she decides to remain evil... then we will all be doomed."

"Unless..." Justin trailed off. His mother knew what he wanted to say.

"No, Justin," Elizabeth said. "We can't kill her!"

"But what if we have to?"

Everyone in the room felt troubled by Justin's words. They would hate themselves even more if they had to kill Emery, especially after what they did to her. For the sake of everything good, they hoped that Emery would not like the taste of evil.

Just as the people in the main study room silently thought of other outcomes of their plan, a guard stationed at one of the front castle towers spotted something through his binoculars on a stand. He enchanted it, enabling him to zoom further on the object he couldn't clearly see. He tensed immediately.

Near the mountains, there was a small tornado. The guard realized that the clouds had merged at that point as they formed the swirling clouds. That could also explain the change in the wind's speed. What the guard also saw made him slightly frightened.

There were erboons flying out of the tornado. Not ten, but numerous. They were coming out like a swarm of locusts.

The guard looked around the area with his binoculars, unexpectedly noticing Emery. She had her back to him and her hands stretched out in front of the tornado as the erboons kept coming. Then Emery turned to face the guard. It was as if she saw him, and she smiled.

Completely freaked out, the guard rushed to the castle's main study room.

"Your Majesty!" he yelled with a deep voice, panting as he stopped running. "Erboons... around Eva's castle..."

"Erboons?" Erick asked just as he and the people in the room followed him. He made his way towards the tower the guard was in and looked through the enchanted binoculars.

There were many erboons, many enough to block the sky. Moreover, he spotted Emery heading towards his way with them.

"Emery's coming," Erick announced. Justin, Selena, the Queen and the Ordinary Brothers tensed in fear. They all began heading towards the ground floor of the castle. They burst out of the castle doors and walked towards the invisible dome, stopping a few feet in front of it.

From where Emery was, she used her powers to see the castle. She growled once she saw the people who had betrayed her. She levitated higher in the sky as the erboons behind her followed.

"She's not alone," Logan said as he looked through his teleported binoculars. "So, what's the plan?"

"We talk to her," Erick said.

"WHAT?" almost everyone next to him cried out in disbelief.

"Dude, there is an evil crystal, and all you want to do is talk?" Justin asked.

"You've got any better ideas?" Erick fired back, managing to get no answer from his brother. "It wouldn't matter how we approach her. The safest option is to first talk to her. We need to distract her as the witches work on the potion. Talking to Emery will buy us some time before it is ready."

While Erick was talking, Emery had summoned a huge fireball that was quickly approaching.

"Erick!" Selena yelled as she pointed at the incoming fireball.

"Run!" Justin yelled just as they all ran towards the castle. They were all worried that the fireball would destroy part of Crystalia. Lucky for them, the fireball hit the magical dome. 

The fireball exploded with a loud sound and erupted into flames that licked up around it, momentarily blocking the view outside the dome before dissipating.

"That was a close one," Ethan said as his breathing calmed. "I am so glad you guys did not remove the dome."

"Me too," Erick commented just as Emery was getting into their view. He and the rest were maneuvering back to the dome border where they could talk with Emery without having the other witches killed.

"She's here," Liam said just as Emery flew to the ground. At that time, Liam, Erick, Justin, Selena, Elizabeth and the members of the Ordinary Brothers were a few feet away from Crystalia's border. Emery walked towards them, her stare stony as her evil form slowly took over.

Zane and Harry gasped at the transformation. At that sound, Emery's head whipped so fast as she turned her gaze towards them. She was shocked that the two were out of jail. 

Anger suddenly clouded her judgment as she threw a fireball at them. The fireball didn't reach them as the dome deflected it. Emery ducked just as it bounced towards her, hitting an erboon behind her. It screeched before exploding into ashes.

"Well, well, well," Emery said as she touched the surface of the dome. Emery felt a hot sensation in her hand, and she retracted it. "Look at what we have here: the people who ruined my life."

"Emery..." Erick trailed off, having no idea of what to say. "What happened to you?"

Emery laughed at him. "Nothing much, Erick. I just discovered who I was meant to be."

"You do know that you look awful, right?" Logan commented, and Emery's darkened eyes turned to him. Logan almost jumped at the quick movement.

"I don't understand you," Emery said with a fake confused smile. "I'm just becoming who you believe I am. I'm an evil witch."

"Emery, you are not," Justin said. "This is not you."

Emery laughed at him.

"Do you even know the real me?" she asked, moving a foot towards the dome. An electric feeling overcame her as the dome materialized with a low white glow in front of her. 

In anger, she began using her powers to try to destroy the dome. The rest saw what she was doing, but they were confident that the dome would not break.

"Weren't you all convinced that I would turn into an evil witch eight months ago?"

"We were wrong," Erick replied. "And I'm sorry for that."

"Sorry?" Emery's voice took a deep scary tone as she glared at him. "Sorry is not going to bring my life back."

"I know, Emery," Erick said. "I want us to talk. Maybe we can solve our problems without having to destroy everything in your path."

"Now you