“You called the taxi?”
“Yes!”
“Where is he?”
“Late?”
“That’s bad. That’s very bad.”
They continued running as fast as Mattie’s feet would carry her.
The sound of an explosion caused Amanda to look back. Not exactly an explosion: the guard had kicked down the shed’s door. He spun in a full circle, spotted the girls, and hurried for the gate.
“We’ve got company,” Amanda said.
“I didn’t need to hear that.”
What Amanda didn’t confess was how much the multiple pushes had drained her. She was running low on energy. As if to mirror her feelings, her hologram flickered.
“Don’t leave me!” Mattie pleaded.
“I don’t have a lot of choice about it.” Her left arm vanished. Her head disappeared and reappeared.
The man chasing them skidded to a stop, stunned by Amanda’s vanishing. In that moment, Amanda felt a kind of power swell inside her. She possessed a quality that could intimidate an adult she found terrifying. She tried to see herself: no arms or legs. DHI shadow. Again.
“I’m right here,” she said, her voice cellular quality again.
The guard ran straight for her, eyes wide with fear and rage.
“Keep running,” Amanda called to Mattie. She lifted her invisible arms and pushed.
Nothing. She’d missed. She was about try again when he closed the distance.
“Boo!” she shouted, just as he was going to run her over.
The man flew off the ground, screaming. He turned an ankle as he went down and slammed onto the hard road, its dirt surface compacted to cement by endless tour buses.
Mattie was now a small dot in the dark distance. The man rolled around, gripping his ankle and moaning.
Amanda didn’t know much Spanish, but she knew a few key words. She sneaked up on the writhing man and whispered harshly, “Vive el Diablo!” The Devil lives!
He hollered again. Rolled away from her and off the roadbed, now tucked into a fetal position. He was going to need therapy.
Far away on the mountain, a girl screamed.
Charlene!
They should have never left her behind.
* * *
During the six o’clock hour, half the passengers attended the musical in the Walt Disney Theatre while the other half ate in one of the ship’s three dining rooms.
Among the Keepers’ cruise responsibilities was rotating each night to dine with a different family. Tonight, Finn had been assigned a table with a mom, a dad, and ten-year-old twin boys. At the next table, Philby was with two sets of parents and two good looking girls about his age. Some guys got all the luck, Finn thought bitterly. Was this Wayne’s doing as well?
During the appetizer course—soup for Finn—a Cast Member, a young woman, arrived at his table.
“Finn Whitman?” She passed him an envelope.
“What’s this?” Finn asked, accepting it. Typically, any note was left in a holder outside the door of your stateroom. A hand delivery had to be special.
She was college age, a little heavy, with sad, listless eyes. Not your typical Cast Member, Finn thought, though it had been a long day for everyone. She shrugged and headed off.
Finn opened the envelope. Inside was a typed or computer-printed card.
THE DIRECTOR OF SECURITY
REQUESTS YOUR PRESENCE AT 6:30 PM,
PER YOUR RECENT ACTIVITY IN ANIMATOR’S PALATE.
Finn gulped. Per your recent activity… As in: throwing a table across the room and destroying a wall?
The exchange had caught Philby’s attention. Finn leaned out of his chair and passed him the note.
“Mind if I come along?” Philby said.
“I was just about to ask.”
* * *
With passengers divided between eating and enjoying the show, the ship was like a ghost town. As Finn and Philby descended the stairway to Deck 1, the staircase lights sputtered, flickered, and died.
When the lights came back up a moment later, they were at half their original brightness, a gloomy amber.
“Do you always travel in pairs?”
They recognized her voice immediately, the knowledge followed by a wave of dread and terror. Maleficent rarely showed herself, and when she did… Finn and Philby had too many bad memories of those moments.
Exchanging a look, refusing to glance back and see the evil fairy, the boys continued down the stairway. They were careful not to run, not to instigate some action from Maleficent. She was powerful, but they’d beaten her before; she didn’t scare Finn the way she once might have. They wanted to reach the landing where there would be more room and more choices for escape or even—did he dare think it?—victory.
Below them, on the Deck 1 forward landing, a second figure appeared: the Evil Queen.
A witch sandwich.