Dark Ride (35 page)

Chapter 131

Jack thinks,
This is it, the moment of truth. It is the moment we have labored all night for.
In spite of his uneasiness about the situation, Jack is looking forward to hearing what the Queen will read.

“Please step forward, noble one,” she says.

Jack watches as Scotty takes a deep breath and steps toward the Queen. He is grinning happily, awaiting whatever the story has in store.

Everyone in the room is smiling, with two exceptions: Jack, who is obviously still a little concerned, and the wolf, who is now looking totally flustered, which Jack dismisses as the look of a sore loser.

The Queen clears her throat with an exaggerated cough and begins.

“The apprentice presented the key he had taken,
A gift for the Queen long since forsaken.
The boy had lived with little will of his own.
He left it up to the tailor which way to be shown.
Until one day when the tailor left him alone in spite of his pleas.
Abandoned in the wood, the apprentice fell to his knees
Lost in the dark forest with no one to lead,
For he could not live for himself in his hour of need.
Resigned to his fate, lonely and cold,
His vision left him as he grew old,
A blind lonely beggar, hopeless in the deep dark wood,
A sightless follower with no leader, his fate far from good.”

The words of the Queen were joyous and spoken with a great amount of celebration. But the script is far from what any of them expected, and Scotty stands with an expression of disbelief.

Before any of them can speak, Scotty, as if in a trance, pulls the scissors from his pocket, waltzes woozily to the Queen, and hands her the key.

He then saunters back over to the side of the others and says, “What was that? I don't want to go blind!” as tears begin to stream down his face.

“Wait a minute, what is going on here?” cries Jack.

“Isn't it obvious? This is his story. Are you disappointed?” the Queen smirks.

“Is this some kind of a joke?” Amy declares. “That is not a happy ending.”

“Oh, but it is, pretty girl. A happy ending for me, and that is all that matters. Let us be clear about this. You have agreed to have the stories read. Now, I will read them one by one. It is your reward for bringing me the book, and, equally important, you will each give me your key!”

The Queen turns the scissors over in her hands while eyeing them and says, “A simple pair of scissors? This is a key? Here in plain view the whole time. How plain.”

Jack turns his head to Mason, who is staring in disbelief. Then he tells the Queen, “But that's not a reward, that's terrible. We helped you.” His
voice trails off and then rises again, saying, “You are supposed to let us go!”

“Of course you helped me! And now, I will help myself—to your keys.”

The Queen cackles in laughter.

Jack is defeated. The hope he had once had, the hope they had all had, is now gone. He has been betrayed. Now, as Jack observes the Queen, he notices a bizarre change that has come over her. The Queen, once radiant with kindness, looks sinister, dark, and ominous. She still smiles, but it is a terrible smirk.
Had she grown taller?
Jack wonders.

Instead of appearing welcoming, the Queen looks imposing, and her entire body is glowing with some sort of green light, the same green light that surrounds the fire.

“That cannot be the story. Change it now!” Amy challenges.

“Silence!” commands the Queen. Then she gives an exaggerated wave of a hand, and, suddenly, none of them can move. Jack's arms and legs are frozen in place. His muscles strain to move, but they can't.

The reality of what has happened hits Jack square between the eyes. This queen, this once glamorous beauty, is nothing more than a witch!
Of course
, thinks Jack.
The witch in the fairytale.
He realizes they are at her mercy and that the whole ordeal was a setup in order for her to acquire the book and the keys.

In spite of his frozen limbs, Jack can still turn his head, and he sees Victor standing triumphantly to his left with his arms folded in front of him in self-satisfaction. The man says, “A great day, my Queen!”

“Victor, yes, we have finally won, but this is not just our victory. This is a great day for all who are trapped in the woods. That selfish narrator, who has imprisoned us, will no longer be able to keep us from making this world a better place!”

The chilling words send Scotty into a gush of panic. He looks at Jack and then at his sister.

Trying to speak between sobs, he mutters, “No, I want to go home. Please, someone, help me!”

Suddenly Scotty's expression turns dull. Tears still gush from his eyes, but they turn void of any light.

The Queen shoots an evil eye at Scotty and barks, “I said
enough
!” Then she clears her throat and waves her arm, making each of their mouths slam shut.

“And now, young tailor, learn your fate.”

We've made a terrible mistake
, Jack thinks.

Chapter 132

Mason awaits the Queen's words, praying that somehow, someway his story will turn out better than Scotty's.

The Queen turns to face him and says, “Come forward, tailor.”

Her hand shoots out in front of her, and a long finger points to Mason, whose legs begin to move in an awkward motion toward the Queen. No amount of effort can prevent his legs from moving closer to the evil woman.

“Shall we continue?” the Queen muses. Then she looks down and, with a twisted grin, reads.

“The tailor extends the key to the Queen,
The item that until now she had been unable to glean.
His pride and vanity had led him astray.
His own arrogance, for that he would pay.
Selfish and vain he cared little for his friends,
His life in his old world he could never mend.
So the Queen offered life to the miserable boy:
Serving her was the only way he could obtain such joy.
A tailor he would be in her fitting room now.
Loyalty to her, forever his vow.”

“This is a fitting story. Proud boy, so full of himself. We must cure you of this, my child,” says the Queen, whose self-righteous confidence fills the room.

“Simply wonderful, milady!” Victor exclaims.

Now Mason, too, is crying. He cannot help but grab the badge from his chest and place it into the waiting hand of the Queen, who looks down at the badge and cocks her head, studying the trinket.

The tough exterior Mason had long protected crashes down as he ambles back to the side of the others. As his body continues to move by no will of his own, he ponders,
Serve the Queen? Never see my dad again?
A thick knot balls up in his throat and more tears follow. Mason can still turn his head, and he looks back to see Amy with her eyes puffy and red, Jack standing with his mouth twisted and obviously furious, and Scotty weeping because of his own sentence.

Mason tells himself,
You can fight this! Move!
However, the spell that the witch has conjured keeps him still.

A sudden question crosses Mason's mind:
Is this my fault?
He realizes that he had insisted that the Queen proceed, but he reassures himself that they had all agreed. Plus, he thinks,
It was Jack who insisted we finish the story. He's the one who beat us over the heads with those words.

As he wrestles with these thoughts in his need to blame someone else for the predicament, Mason is called back to the grim situation at hand as the Queen begins to speak again.

Chapter 133

“And now for our pretty little wanderer,” says the Queen with words full of fake kindness.

More than anything, Amy wants to reach out to Scotty and somehow comfort him. She tries desperately to say something, but the Queen's spell won't allow it, and her body moves toward the enchantress. Never in all her life has she been so scared, so terrified. Her sentence is next.

“Little Red, our wanderer, our damsel in distress
Tried so hard her own sins to confess.
Taking her key, she gives it away.
The key, now the witch's item to display.
She could not stand the sight of her own face,
For other women were beautiful, she longed to take their place.
She stayed in the wood to serve the lovely Queen,
Serving her daily, her palace to clean.”

A feeling of despair washes over Amy. Somehow, the Queen had known about her insecurity, and as if reinforcing the words, the Queen, in spite of her wickedness, seems to appear more beautiful to Amy. No other emotion can trump Amy's own feeling of worthlessness. The words the Queen had read seem to control the girl's actions.

Amy proceeds to set the stick before the Queen.

“What an excellent story, my Queen!” Victor exclaims, beaming with delight.

The Queen sets the stick down to her side after observing the item and says, “Amazing…such dull items, these keys.”

After her sentence has been read, Amy returns to her spot with the others. Her story is just as terrible as Mason's and her brother's, and her heart is hurting for them just as much as she feels hopeless for herself. Jack's story is next, and the thought of the boy makes things eternally worse for Amy. In spite of his deception, Amy's heart aches for Jack, and she asks herself,
Why have I been so cruel to him?
She wishes he could forgive her, and if she could speak, she would yell, “I'm sorry, Jack! Forgive me!”

Amy considers how after all these years she has let one mistake ruin everything and that now she will never have the chance to make things right.

Chapter 134

Jack knows his story is next, and his stomach does cartwheels.

The Queen examines all of the teens briefly and says, “To think we have been waiting all these years for these children. It is absolutely delicious.”

She is clearly savoring the moment. Then she suddenly stops and displays another wicked grin, adding, “Why, with all of the excitement I had not even noticed it before. Look, Victor. It seems the tailor has kept your belt safe.”

Jack is confused. He contemplates,
Victor's belt? Wait…it's not Douglas Finch's bag?

Victor says, “I am glad they have kept it safe. It is my only reminder of the world I left behind before that glorious day I met you, my Queen.”

Jack realizes,
Victor is Douglas Finch—the Douglas Finch!
This truth makes Jack feel even sicker to his stomach. He considers how the whole night had been a trap, a game. The work belt they found had been deliberately placed, and the map with the note had been an elaborate hoax in order for these villains to get the book from the narrator.
But why?
Jack wonders.

As he's thinking hard about this, the haze begins to clear, and he angrily tries to yell.

“Ahh,” the Queen remarks, “the thief has some words for us, Victor. Perhaps he would like to thank us no doubt? Feel free. Speak.”

“
You moved us through this world like pawns,” asserts Jack. Then he looks at Victor and says, “You're Douglas Finch. Why did you do this to us? Why are you helping her?”

The man does not answer. He simply breaks into a joyous chuckle, obviously pleased that at least one of them had solved the riddle.

Jack turns back to the Queen and tells her, “You couldn't find the keys yourself, but now you have your stupid keys, so let us go!”

“This child thinks he is wise beyond his years,” the Queen states proudly.

“You wanted access to the vault. Was that your goal? You want to control everyone; you want to change all of the stories!”

“Excellent! What a truly ingenious child. You see, my young thief, I am going to change this world for the better. For far too long we have been trapped here. I will burn the book, my book, and take control of this world. The narrator will no longer control my story, for the book will burn. Its existence will be wiped from memory. Then, those people represented in that vault will have no will of their own, for they do not know what is best for them. I will change their stories one at a time. Thank you—all of you! For years I have waited for you, and now I have won.”

The reality of the grand scheme hits Jack. They had done everything for her. They had shown her the way. They had taken the bait hook, line, and sinker.

He attempts to speak again, but a gentle wave of the Queen's hand forces his mouth to shut tight. Then his legs move forward under no power of his own. With her long finger, the Queen is begging him forward.

Jack thinks, “If only we had not taken the book from the narrator….”

The Queen clears her throat and then begins.

“The desperate thief would grow full of wrath.
He had been so sure he had taken the right path.
The key he had was useless to the boy,
So he adorned his Queen with her latest new toy.
Now lost in the wood, the boy had to survive.
Only his talent of theft would allow him to thrive.
Caught and imprisoned, convicted and tried
For his many sins that he choose to try and hide,
Imprisoned to pay for his life full of strife,
He died bitter and angry at his choices in life.”

Somehow, Jack knows that whatever the Queen had read would come true, but, still, he wonders,
Is this my fate?
His thoughts start to become cloudy and he can't think straight. He tells himself,
Fight it, Jack! Stay here!”
However, his body starts toward the backpack in order to retrieve
the goose for the Queen. Unexpectedly, though, he suddenly stops as if his own will is confused, and he thinks,
What is happening to me?

Chapter 135

From his vantage point, the wolf is engrossed in the events unfolding before him. One by one as the Queen reads the stories, he notices that the teens seem to fall under some sort of spell. A gnawing emotion eats at him, something he had not expected at all. It had hit him just as the Queen summoned Amy forward. Her fear, her obvious regret, and the emotions on her face—they drew out something that had long laid dormant in his soul. To his utter shock, he feels actual remorse, even sympathy, for the girl he had hunted with such vigor.

However, the sympathy is not exclusive to the girl. He feels guilt for the others as well. He knows the kids had actually saved him from the fire. When he had been inside the burning hut, he had blacked out, and when he woke, all he saw was the procession of kids leaving. The wolf recognizes that these brave kids had outwitted him. He considers how they had fought him with such tenacity, even here in this room, and in the room with the spider, one of them had actually taken care of the spider for him by using the shrinking potion. So, although it seems strange, he respects them, as a hero respects his rival. Now, as these kids are being imprisoned by the Queen, a realization hits him: they are prisoners now just like him.

Suddenly, it is all very clear to the wolf. Once he had awoken that night in the ride, it was the Queen who had instructed him to get the girl.
How had he been so foolish?
he thinks. She was using him to drive the teens to her. Also, while he had longed to eat the girl, his actions were being manipulated by the Queen.

He wonders,
Did I act foolishly? Now that the Queen has deceived the teens, will she deceive me again? Will she truly give me the girl? No, probably not. But what can I do? The Queen can simply hex me. Still, now that the Queen no longer needs my services, she will dispose of me anyways.

The wolf decides that whatever he is going to do, he must do it quickly. He tells himself,
It's now or never
, and then springs into action. The wolf, in spite of his bad leg, launches himself at the Queen. The distance closes, and just as he is about to plow into her body, she turns. A look of disbelief flashes across the Queen's face. Then she slides to her left. In mid-jump,
the wolf attempts to re-position his charge but can't properly manipulate himself with his injured leg.

“What are you doing?” screams the Queen. Just as the wolf passes her by, she mutters a spell.

The wolf howls, and all of his joints start becoming stiff. Before he loses complete control, though, he slings a wild paw into the air in an effort to scratch, maim, or inflict some injury. This misses the Queen, but one of his sharp claws does manage to spear a piece of paper, which rips away from the raised hand of the Queen. Then, after another moment, the paper is dislodged from the wolf's nail and wafts into the air.

The wolf lands with a thud inches from the crackling fire.

The Queen cries out in rage, “You fool!”

From the hard ground, the wolf watches as the paper, gently floating, comes to rest in the fire.