CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Fairy Mary Mag’s Scary Spiriting Away

Before I can lunge at Magdalena to give her a real piece of my mind (read: summon my magic and burn her to ashes), she emits a blue forcefield similar to the one Maggie had conjured up for us back on the beach. However, instead of using it to protect herself, she throws it at Anton and I, and we become enveloped in it.

I try to run out of it, but it’s made out of some kind of solid material unlike before. I bang my fists against it, but it does not break and my efforts are in vain. It’s like we’re trapped in a big hamster ball! I kick it in anger, yelling at Magdalena to let us out.

“You fool, you’re not getting out until I decide you can! And that’s only going to be once we’ve reached my castle– I’m only letting you out to kill you, so don’t go acting all eager to get out!” Magdalena cackles, “Although… Maybe if you wore yourself out trying to escape, the task of killing you would be easier. You have way too much energy!”

She points a claw-like finger at the forcefield, and raises her hand to the sky. With that, we’re taken off the ground and high above the clouds, presumably floating towards Magdalena’s castle.

“UGH! This is so stupid!” I groan, burying my face in my hands and falling to my knees as the ground beneath us grows further and further away, “I really thought we were gonna wake up! I really trusted Maggie! I did! …And now, we might never wake up!”

Anton crouches beside me, and for a second I feel like we’re back in that starting-point field where I’d bitten him. If only I hadn’t tried to follow him to his dreams! This whole mess was my fault, and if I hadn’t been so desperate trying to prove my dream magic theory… If I hadn’t decided to trust Maggie… Then none of this would have happened and neither of us would have to worry about never waking up again.

“This whole dream is all my fault,” I mumble, “I wish I could take it all back so we wouldn’t have to worry about being stuck here forever or getting killed by an insane dream witch lady.”

“There is no use for that kind of talk now,” Anton replies quietly, “This situation has grown into something much larger than ourselves, and if Marg– rather, Magdalena, really has held a grudge against me since our middle school years, perhaps these events were inevitable. I have realized now that it is likely Magdalena who had brought both of us here so she could kill us; after all, this is her dream, not yours or mine. It is not your fault you are here, and I apologize for assuming so earlier. Oh, if only I had realized that earlier… It would have saved us both a great deal of strife. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, as they say.”

“But… what I’d told you about thinking about you really hard to enter your dreams,” I still hide my face in my hands, since talking about it again is making my face burn up with shame and I don’t want him to see that, “That’s why I thought I wound up here with you. I thought thinking about you really hard all day is what brought me here.”

“Perhaps just an untimely coincidence, though what Magdalena had said about you being an intruder in her dreams is something I find quite curious. You may very well have dream magic, granted you wound up in her dream without her summoning you directly.”

“I don’t know how it happened. It’s not like I was trying to invade her dream on purpose. I didn’t even know she existed! I went to sleep that night and I woke up in her castle,” I sigh, looking at him and placing my hands in my lap, “Remember when I was freaking out about wanting to tell you something, but I’d forgotten what it was? I wanted to tell you about that dream! She told me that she was going to kill you, and she also told me she’d been spying on both of our dreams for some time. After that, she said she’d steal my memory so I couldn’t warn you about her plot. When I woke up, I forgot all about it, and it tripped me up really badly.”

“So I see. I suppose this entire time I should have directed my anger towards her for violating my dreams, if what she told you was correct. Makes me wonder how long she’d been worming her way into my subconscious with the very few dreams I’ve had recently. Eugh. Makes my skin crawl, but now is not the time to ruminate on such things.”

As he talks I continue to look at him, studying his face carefully. His expression is serious, and he doesn’t seem the least bit scared at all! How could he not be, especially when our dooms are so imminent?!

“Anton?” I ask.

“Yes?”

“You don’t seem scared at all.”

“Should I be?” He asks, shifting to a more comfortable sitting position. He leans against the forcefield leisurely.

“YES! Are you insane?!” I exclaim, waving my hands, “A crazy lady has us both trapped here and is about to kill us! She’s hated you since middle school for… I don’t even know what! What could you have done to her that was horrible enough to warrant all this bullshit?!”

“I haven’t a clue, not like it matters anyway. She may think of me however she pleases to, no matter if her vision of me is incongruent with the reality of who I truly am as a person,” his eyes meet mine, and he smiles darkly, “See, the reason I’m not terrified at all is because somehow, deep down, I knew something like this was going to happen. I knew all along Maggie was not to be trusted, and it really shouldn’t have taken a genius to realize that the cost of waking up would likely be greater than eating a hearty breakfast. My paranoia truly wasn’t in vain, and I must admit I’m feeling rather vindicated at the moment.”

I cross my arms and scowl.

“But did your paranoia save us from this stupid fate?!” I groan angrily, “You can go on and on about how you were right about everything all along, but you being right about everything all along didn’t save us from SHIT!”

“Hong? Resigning to fate? Just when I thought this dream couldn’t get any stranger… Magdalena may plan to kill us, but who says we’re going to let her? I’m surprised I am the one who is saying such things. I mean, you leapt in front of me to defend my honor from Magdalena only a few minutes ago. Just what has gotten into you?”

“I dunno… I guess maybe HER HAVING TRAPPED US IN AN INDESTRUCABLE FLOATING BUBBLE THAT’S LEADING US TO OUR DEATHS MIGHT BE FREAKING ME OUT A BIT?!?!?!?!” I take a deep breath, trying to calm down, “Do you really think we’d be able to defeat her? I mean, she created this whole dream, so she must have ultimate power over it, right? And you got all freaked out when I tried to fight that dragon earlier! Why are you so eager for me to get in a fight all of a sudden?! What if she hurts me really bad, and your magic won’t be able to save me again?”

“Your fears are valid. I would prefer not to think about such things,” he sighs, his smirk fading as his eyes wander away from me, “This time, it is different than before– we have no choice but to fight her, and it appears we have real time to plot out a plan of action instead of running out guns blazing. It almost seems too convenient for her to leave us alone, but we mustn’t just sit here twiddling our thumbs. Magdalena may have ultimate power here, but surely there is some way to defeat her and wake up.”

“A plot to defeat her? You’re right about this seeming ‘too convenient’. What if she’s listening to us right now? She said she was watching us earlier through Maggie… Maybe if Maggie’s not here to be her eyes and ears she won’t be able to know what we’re talking about? If she’s watched us through our dreams before, though, then maybe she’s in our heads right now, and–”

“If certain death is near then we have nothing to lose. Fifty-fifty she has no clue what we are discussing at the moment. The odds aren’t good, but I am willing to bet on them. What choice do we have? It is between death and waking up, and I know you’d like to return to the waking world just as much as I do.”

He reaches to grab my wrist gently, tracing his fingers down to my hand. His hand is cold and so much larger than mine, and its firmness makes the fact that I’m still trembling a bit from fear all the more obvious. Our eyes meet again, and his are filled with determination as our fingers interlace.

“Be still now, Hong,” his grasp on my hand tightens, “You must calm yourself. You must not give into fear. Where is that bravery from before? That bravery you’ve carried with you all throughout this dream? That bravery you carried until just a few moments ago? It is still within you, somewhere, I just know it. You must find it and hold onto it as tightly as I am holding your hand right now.”

“I don’t feel very calm OR brave. Can’t you feel how badly I’m trembling right now? Having our lives threatened directly is what’s scaring me the most right now, and the gravity of everything is hitting me like a ton of bricks. At first this dream seemed like all fun and games, but now that Maggie, Tim, and Catherine are gone… Everything’s changed and it’s all so scary. It feels so real! More real than ever before! And I don’t know how to feel less scared. I’m not only scared for myself, but for you too.”

“Oh?”

“Uh huh, I don’t want Magdalena to kill you! You’re my best friend, Anton, and no one else means as much to me as you do,” I sniffle, tears beginning to well up in my eyes, “I certainly don’t want to die, but I don’t want you to die either! I want to protect you, like how I wanted to protect Maggie, and I’m so scared I won’t be able to, a-and–”

“Now you know exactly how I feel,” he interrupts, “I understand that at times my anxieties seem unnecessary or unfounded to you, and trust me, I don’t understand why I feel the way I do either. I have never felt this way towards anyone else before, and it is strange, and it is frightening. I feel a responsibility– no– a calling, a calling I must heed. A voice in my head that says I must keep you safe, because it feels you are all I have in this world most days. Now you are hearing that same voice. Maybe you always have, but you were just too coy to admit it.”

I look at our hands, not wanting to look at him directly. I guess he really does have a point with all that he’s saying, and those thoughts I’d been having recently about him begin to resurface. I guess he really does care about me more greatly than he should, but I also care about him more greatly than I should, too. I can’t believe it took me so long to realize that! I can feel my face growing a bit red again and this is no time to think about these things!

“I want to start devising a plan,” I say suddenly, furrowing my brow as Anton’s determination seemingly becomes contagious, “And I want us to work together this time. I don’t think I can defeat Magdalena on my own.”

“Ah, yes, that’s a good start,” Anton replies, letting go of my hand, “There is your bravery. My magic may not be what it once was, but I will do whatever I can to assist as you know very well how desperately I want to escape this nightmare. I’d feel terrible just sitting around uselessly. I can only hope that the dragon incident on the beach did not fully drain my power.”

“So, we’ll be a team?” I ask, perking up.

“But of course, we always have been a team,” he nods, “And a damn excellent one at that!”