The Cavalier's Choice

The Cavalier’s Choice

Dakota Love

Prompt #95: Decision Time

The Cavalier looked around the farmhouse which was headquarters to his superhero team, the Allies. The Allies were a tightly-knit superhero group who cared about family and friends. They fought evil, defended the innocent, and, most recently, were on a quest to find and preserve the Native American legends of the Oyate Tribe.

That was, until everything went sideways.

The Allies had been temporarily taken over by an evil sorceress who used mind-control to convince the heroes that she had always been part of the team. The heroes had been hard-pressed to fight against her powers of the mind. And looking at the state their headquarters was in, the Cavalier now understood why.

The humble farmhouse, which served as headquarters for the team, was usually a quaint home with the rustic charm of the Midwest prevalent in every corner. But now, it looked more like something out of a horror movie – or an Escher painting.

The Cavalier looked up at the staircases going up the ceiling, the obvious spike pit in the corner of what should have been the kitchen, and windows that looked into empty, vacant darkness.

But what drew the Cavalier further in was two ominous doors in the floor of the dining room, which seemed to beckon to him.

“Dang,” the Cavalier said, brushing his dark hair away from his face.

“You alright in there?” the Ranger called from the doorway.

“Yeah, but the house isn’t,” the Cavalier replied. He and the Ranger were friendly rivals on the team, as well as the best of friends. Although they often competed, the Cavalier knew the Ranger always had his back.

“Don’t I know it!” the Ranger laughed. “I’m gonna take the SUV to the hardware store. We didn’t bring nearly enough stuff. It’ll take us a little while to fix this place up again.”

“At least the team has a place to stay while we’re repairing it,” the Cavalier said, kicking rubble out of his way.

“I’ll be back in a few,” the Ranger said, grabbing his keys. “Just do minor stuff while I'm gone, okay?”

“Alright,” the Cavalier replied, walking forward a few steps.

“We don't know what kind of deathtraps that witch put in there,” the Ranger continued. “Don’t do anything crazy.”

Unfortunately, the Ranger’s warning never reached the Cavalier. The acoustics of the ruined farmhouse meant the Ranger’s words were swallowed up by the weird corners and countless stairways in between him and the Cavalier, who had walked forward just a little too far.

The Cavalier found himself in front of the two doors in the dining room floor. He absently noticed that the vase of peacock feathers that normally stood in the corner of the room had been bolted to the ceiling.

“I wondered why we couldn’t fight the mind-control better,” the Cavalier said aloud. “This place is a shambles. That dang sorceress…”

The Cavalier’s mind drifted back to the last few days. They had been a tangle, and still were. He felt like his memory of the past events was a bit like the farmhouse. Everything was in the wrong places. His hand formed a fist, remembering how the sorceress had nearly destroyed his son, the Cleric. His dear child who made everyone around him smile, and was the true heart of the Allies.

The Cavalier wanted desperately to find his son’s Bible, the most treasured of his possessions. He thought of the Cleric, sleeping soundly while his mother, Shakti, looked after him.

“I promised you both I’d try to find it,” the Cavalier said, his mind made up. “Even though you didn’t hear me, son. I’ll find it alright. I’m sure it’s behind one of these two doors. I can feel it.”

The question was – which one?

The Cavalier stood there, looking at the doors. The light seemed to change slightly, and the Cavalier tried to look out one of the windows. After discovering that the window looked into the basement somehow, he shook his head and walked to the front door.

“What have I been doin’?” the Cavalier asked himself. “I’ve been starin’ at them dang doors for at least twenty minutes! And never decided which one to open! This is more of that sorceress’ work, ain’t it? It’s what she did to all of us – made it so we couldn’t think our way out of it. Well, it ain’t gonna happen no more. I’m goin’ in!”

The Cavalier didn’t stop to think. He walked confidently up to the right-hand door, opened it –

- And found himself inside a room full of deadly obstacles!

“Whoa, now!” the Cavalier said, dodging a blast from a nearby flamethrower. Giant blades immediately started coming from the ceiling. “Not good!” he shouted, leaping out of the way.

The floor opened up beneath the Cavalier, and he nearly fell into a pit of spikes even deadlier than the ones in the upstairs kitchen.

Grabbing onto the ledge, the Cavalier heaved himself up just in time.

“This ain’t right,” he said as lasers began to fire from turrets in the walls. Although they looked like they were more for show than the rest of the obstacles, the Cavalier wasn’t about to take any chances.

Running like mad, the Cavalier finally reached the opposite side of the room, and pushed a large button on the far wall. The obstacles whirred, fired off a last shot, and then shut down.

“Whew,” the Cavalier said, leaning against the wall. Looking up just in time, he sidestepped to avoid one last trap: a large boulder that rolled out from the ceiling.

After the dust settled, the Cavalier closed his eyes. He thought of the Cleric as hard as he could. He and Shakti loved their son more than life itself. And the Cavalier was sure something that belonged to the Cleric was close.

“Please, Lord, help me find it,” the Cavalier prayed. “The Cleric got hurt purty bad, and he needs his Bible to feel better. Where would that sorceress have hidden it?”

The Cavalier opened his eyes, and surveyed the room. He was sure that the Bible would be hidden in the place people – normal people and not crazed sorceresses – would never look for it.

“Somewhere hard to get to, like…” the Cavalier began. His eyes settled on the big red button.

“Like that!” he finished, smiling. He carefully reached his hand behind the large boulder, struggling to reach the button. He took a screwdriver from his pocket, and used it to reach the button panel. Trying not to get his arm stuck, he finally got the right leverage to pry the panel from the wall.

There was a faint thud, and out fell the missing Bible!

“Thank you, Lord!” the Cavalier said, gingerly extricating the precious volume from behind the boulder.

The Cavalier gently brushed the dust from the well-worn, red cover of the book. He thought of all the times his son had read through its pages, his small hands finding just the right passage to help his friends feel better.

“This’ll help you recover, little one,” the Cavalier said gently. “Now, I just gotta get outta here.”

Machines whirred, and the traps began to spring back to life. “Of course,” the Cavalier said grimly. “They would be set to reactivate after someone pried the button loose. Dang sorceress!”

Then, the Cavalier smiled. “Well, I was able to make a choice and came this far,” he said, once again dodging the questionably lethal lasers. “I ain’t gonna stop now!”

Minutes later, the Cavalier stood at the doorway to the farmhouse, the precious Bible clasped to his heart. The Ranger’s SUV pulled up, and the superhero quickly got out of his vehicle.

“Are you okay?” the Ranger asked, concerned for his friend.

“Yep,” the Cavalier replied, brushing debris out of his hair. “I almost got toasted by a flamethrower, hit by shredder wheels, fell into a spike pit, zapped by lasers, and crushed by a giant boulder. But I found this!” he said, holding the Bible up.

“I told you not to do anything crazy!” the Ranger said.

“I didn’t hear you,” the Cavalier replied honestly. “But I’m glad I didn’t. I needed to overcome the scars the sorceress left behind. Just bein’ in there in front of those doors helped me understand what her mind control had done to us. It made it so we couldn’t think, couldn’t find the answers we needed to fight her, couldn’t make the decisions we needed to make. But she’s defeated now. And I’ve got my son’s Bible back.” A small tear fell from the Cavalier’s eye. “And that’s worth almost getting toasted by a thousand flamethrowers.”

“I understand,” the Ranger said kindly. “I’d do the same for my kid. How about we take a break, and you get that Bible back to Shakti and the Cleric. I think we need a little help with this place after all.”

“Maybe someone can at least get the deathtraps out for us,” the Cavalier agreed. “Then we can fix it up. It’ll be okay – and so will the Allies.”

As the Cavalier walked away from the farmhouse, he felt sure that the Allies, though they had nearly been broken, would emerge stronger than ever before. Decisions could be made, trauma could be overcome, and wounds could heal – as they worked together as family – as friends – and as superheroes!