The Stolen Chapters (19 page)

“It's fine, Mom!” Owen yelled, then whispered to Doyle, “I'm your biggest fan! I knew you were real. The Internet says you're just an urban legend, but I knew you had to be real. Things couldn't be as boring as they look!”

“I encourage those rumors to keep from being overrun by idiots,” Doyle said, sounding bored. “But apparently, now I need one's help. I'm investigating someone, and you are sadly my only lead.”

“You want my help?” Owen said, his eyes widening in awesomeness. “Of course! Who are you investigating?”

“The man who wrote
this
,” Doyle said, and handed Owen a copy of
Story Thieves
.

This. Was. The. Greatest. Day. EVER.

00:21:42

A
nd that's how I met Doyle,” Fowen finished, then sighed heavily. “Only, after he found out that I'd never heard of the
Story Thieves
author either, he left, and I never saw him again.”

Owen peeked above some bushes at the police cars still outside his house.
Fowen's
house. He kept forgetting. Either way, how was Doyle able to track them this fast? Even the greatest detective in the world shouldn't have been able to know where they'd be headed, right when they got there. How had he found them so quickly? Had someone seen them sneaking around in the backyards?

And seriously, even his fictional self was having flashbacks now? More importantly, why hadn't
Owen
had one in a while?

“Why did you tell us what happened like it was a chapter in a book?” he asked Fowen quietly.

“Because obviously someone's going to want to make a book about
me
someday,” Fowen told him. “I've been trying to decide where it should start, and that seemed like a good place, since that's when my life finally got interesting. Your authors can't write about
everyone
here, since it'd be too boring most of the time. But look what Doyle's done. This is totally exciting enough for a book!”

“None of this helps us find Bethany,” Kiel said, his joy at finding out he was in a second series of books apparently wearing off. “We can't keep wasting time. We're down to twenty minutes!”

“Doyle must have given you some clue,” Fowen said. “He wouldn't have been able to resist. It's just how he thinks. Maybe I can help?”

“Aren't you on the wrong side here?” Moira said. “I mean, don't get me wrong, you seem absolutely delightful as a human being, and I'm sure we're going to be best friends until we're being chased and I end up tripping you so the cops get you instead of me. But you just said you were helping Doyle.”

“I didn't realize he was trying to hurt you guys!” Fowen said. “Of course I'm on your side. Your side
is
my side.”

Moira laughed. “I still don't at all get this. You guys are twins or something? No, don't tell me, I like the mystery. Shh,
no
, don't explain!”

“If he can help, then we're all on the same side,” Kiel said, throwing an arm around Fowen's shoulders.

Fowen glanced over at Owen and rolled his eyes.

“All Doyle said was that we didn't even know where we were, which was true. We knew we were in the library—” He froze, realizing that Fowen didn't know. “But we were confused about other things. We got that part. The only other thing he said was that he was doing it by the book. Whatever that means.” Owen sighed. Why did mysteries have to involve so many things to solve? No wonder Owen hated them.

“Hmm,” Fowen said, his eyes lighting up. “I just love mysteries. See? It's all about noticing the things that don't seem important. Like what Doyle said. It sounds almost like a riddle to me.”

“I love riddles!” Moira said. “Have you heard of the sphinx that ate people who answered his riddle wrong? That sphinx definitely had it
all
figured out.”

“What do you mean, a riddle?” Owen asked Fowen, trying to ignore Moira.

“Think about it,” Fowen said. “Doyle said he was doing things by the book, right? What if that didn't mean doing things the official way? Maybe it was a clue to where Bethany actually is.”

Owen started to respond but instantly went quiet as he heard a familiar voice. “Check the surrounding areas,” Inspector Brown said from less than ten yards away. “Doyle said they were here not ten minutes ago, so they can't have gotten far.”

Moira's smile disappeared, and Kiel jumped to his feet.

“What are you doing?” Owen hissed at him.

“Running isn't getting us anywhere,” Kiel said, forcing a grin. “It's time to
fight
.”

“Fight the police?” Fowen said. “With what? You said you don't have magic, and isn't that all you can do?”

Kiel's eyes widened, and he paused for a moment. “There's more to me than magic,” he said quietly, then began silently moving through the bushes toward Inspector Brown.

What was he doing? They needed to run! There was no time for this. Kiel was acting like he was still in a fantasy series instead of a mystery book. Mysteries involved thinking, not fighting!

“Over there!” a policeman yelled, and Owen pushed out of the bushes to see what was happening, only to fall backward a second later, as a police car almost ran him over.

“Get in!” Kiel yelled from the driver's seat as police officers ran at them from every direction.

“Oh, you did
not
steal a police car!” Moira shouted, and tried to push Kiel out of the front seat. “I'm officially completely in love with you, Magical Koala!”

Kiel pushed her back to the passenger's side as Owen considered what he was about to get into. This was probably the
worst
way possible to avoid getting caught.

But weren't they basically caught already? He sighed, pulled open the back door, and jumped in. A moment later Fowen followed, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Well, at least
one
of them was having fun.

“Hold on,” Kiel said, turning around to flash a real, honest smile at Owen. “I'm not entirely sure how to work this thing.”

Okay, maybe two of them, then.

As Kiel looked out the back window to reverse, the car jumped forward, taking out a mailbox first, then a stop sign, and narrowly missing two police officers, who had to leap out of the way.

“Stop!” someone shouted from behind them, and Owen heard the squeal of tires as two other cars raced after them.

“Never!”
Moira shouted out the window, then slammed her foot over Kiel's on the gas pedal.

And
three of them. Fantastic.

The car's acceleration sent Owen crashing against the backseat, then straight into Fowen as Kiel skidded around a corner, jumping the curb before crashing back onto the street.

“He's going to get us caught for sure!” Fowen shouted at Owen as the two banged against each other when Kiel took another corner hard. “If not
killed
.”

“Kiel, we have to stop!” Owen said, trying to sit upright. “You've got the sirens on. They're going to follow us everywhere!”

“Good point,” Kiel said, taking his eyes off the road as they spun out onto a major street with oncoming traffic. “How do I turn them off? We need to be stealthy.”

“Here, I've got it,” Moira said, reaching past Kiel to turn off not only the sirens but also the car's headlights as a truck barreled toward them.

Maybe if this really
is
a book, then we won't die,
Owen thought to himself. Then he remembered how that had worked out for him in
Kiel Gnomenfoot and the Source of Magic
, and how his heart was now robotic, and decided that maybe it wasn't a good idea to take the chance. Not to mention that this was potentially
his
book, and given his luck, he should probably be expecting bad things.

“Watch out!” Fowen shouted as the truck's headlights blinded them, its horn blaring.

“Wow, someone has no idea how to drive,” Kiel said, turning the wheel hard. The car jerked almost ninety degrees to the right, and the truck passed within inches of them.

The two cop cars behind them weren't so lucky. One managed to follow them, but the other went careening off the road and crashed right into a huge pile of trash.

“Good thing that garbage was there,” Fowen shouted from next to Owen.

It's how things work in fiction,
Owen wanted to say, but he just sighed in relief before falling straight into his fictional self as Kiel took another hard turn.

“Where should we go?” the boy magician said, turning back to Owen.

“Who cares?” Moira shouted, grabbing the wheel from Kiel momentarily, a wild look in her eyes as she aimed them toward an empty newsstand on the side of the road. Newspapers went flying, smacking into the windshield of the police car right behind them, which caused the car to turn widely and skid to a stop against some nearby parked cars.

“How'd you know that would happen?” Owen asked in awe.

Moira looked confused, then glanced behind them. “Oh, perfect! I'd just wanted to hit the newsstand.”

“Okay,
we're stopping right now 
!” Owen declared. “Kiel, pull over!”

Kiel slammed on the brakes, despite Moira's loud groan, and Owen and Fowen both crashed against the seat in front of them. Through the pain, Owen tried hard to be thankful that at least they weren't dead. “Everyone out!” Owen shouted, then went to push open his door, only there was no handle.

“Police car back doors don't open from the inside,” Fowen told him. “It's to keep criminals in.”

Criminals.
That
was appropriate. Even if they hadn't set the library on fire, now they'd stolen a police car. Oh, and resisted arrest, broken out of a police station, and about a dozen other things. Could Owen really argue now with Inspector Brown that he was innocent?

Kiel opened Owen's door from the outside, and Owen spilled out onto the sidewalk, then crawled away from the car before standing, Fowen just behind him. “We're doing this all wrong,” Owen said as more sirens began sounding in the distance. “We keep running from place to place instead of
thinking
. That's not how you win mysteries!”

“You don't really win mysteries,” Fowen said.

“Fine, you solve them, or whatever,” Owen said, wondering if
he
was ever that annoying. “Which means investigating, and finding clues, then putting those together in the only way that makes sense.”

“Enough thinking!” Kiel said. “Sometimes it's good to just take action.”

“That's not the kind of story we're in, Kiel,” Owen said. “We need to use our heads!”

“Think about the clue Doyle gave you!” Fowen said as the sirens got closer.

Owen sighed. “It's not a clue. It doesn't mean anything! By the book? All that means is . . .” And then he stopped. By the book. As in
by
the
book
.

It
had
been a clue all along, and Owen hadn't even noticed. Doyle had practically told them exactly where Bethany was, and it took Fowen to point it out.

“I know where we're going,” Owen said. “Come on!” And with that, he took off at a sprint.

Fowen ran after him, a big grin on his face, followed by Kiel and finally Moira, who looked longingly at the police car they left behind. “I'll come back for you, my love!” she said. “Don't forget me, or our all-too-short time together. You'll always be in my heart!”

00:10:34

U
m, we've been here already,” Kiel said, staring at the still-smoking library. A second fire engine had arrived at some point, and even after this long, the firemen still had hoses turned on the smoldering building.

Owen almost couldn't look at the library, even knowing it wasn't exactly his version. Did that really make a difference? Sure, it was fictional, but this was still a place that people could visit and find doorways to other worlds. All those books, gone. What would his fictional mother be thinking right now? How much had her entire life been torn apart?

He turned to Fowen, not sure what to say. If his fictional self felt a fraction of the sadness and horror he felt, then Fowen was going to be devastated.

“I should have told you,” Owen told him.

But Fowen didn't seem to hear him, and just stared at the library. “Doyle really is evil, and must be stopped,” he said quietly. “This is going to take a true hero, nothing less.”

Owen paused, then touched Fowen's shoulder. “Are you okay?”

Fowen jumped as if he were surprised that Owen was there. “So what's the plan?” Fowen asked, his eyes burning with excitement. “Where do you think Bethany is?”

“Aw, I hope she didn't burn up,” Moira said, looking sadly at the remains of the library. “I'm
so
going to miss my gold. . . .”

Owen just stared at her for a moment, then sighed and glanced around, no idea what he was looking for. There
had
to be a reason that Doyle had left them in the library. And the “by the book” line seemed almost like bragging, now that Owen realized what it meant. Or might mean.

It
better
mean what he hoped it did, because they were down to ten minutes.

But if Bethany
had
been in the library, it was way too late to find her now. She'd for sure have jumped back to the nonfictional world, which meant Owen and Kiel were stuck here in the fictional world, probably for good.

And not only did that make one too many Owens, but he, Kiel, and Moira were all wanted by the police. Not to mention he'd never see his mother again, or the outside of a jail cell, probably.