The Librarian (Book Two: Unhappily Ever After) (21 page)

"What have you done?!" the Witch shrieked.

Everyone was transfixed as they watched the Witch die; Taylor knew this was her only chance for escape.

But Taylor noticed that the
castle around her
was now beginning to fade.
It
was becoming the ghost as their bodies came back into focus. There was grass at her feet and she could see trees through the castle walls as they began to disappear. Her surroundings were morphing into the meadow outside the Tinman's cabin. It felt as if she were standing in both places at once. In a moment, the castle would be gone and she'd be on the other side of Oz with Douglas, Randy and Bones.

Tay darted toward the staircase but knew she wasn't going to make it when she saw Wesley running up the stairs toward her. That's what she
wanted
to see: Wesley storming the castle to save her. But Taylor was sure he wasn't there and convinced herself that he was nothing more than a mirage: her wishful thinking mingled with the magic that was taking them away.

She stopped and let the castle around her vanish.

The Witch's spell had worked.

WESLEY CAME UP the steps, rounding the corner into the Witch's throne room. He looked about. Douglas was gone. So was anyone who'd been with him.

Wesley looked down at the Wicked Witch and cringed.

"Help me, please!"

 
There was nothing Wesley could do, even if he wanted to. Most of her body had melted away into a puddle of green sludge on the floor. All that remained was the upper part of her torso. Most of the skin on her face was gone. She was little more than a pile of bones being held together by a web of grisly pink muscles and tendons that had been beneath her green skin.

"I've been... terribly wicked in my day... but I never thought... a little girl... would... ever... end my..."

With that, she was gone, nothing left behind but her clothes floating in the green goo.

"I'm sorry," the librarian said softly. "I believe we've missed her."

Wes shook his head and tried to smile. "Don't be," he said. He looked up at the old man, and for a brief moment, the librarian wasn't looking down at the boy he'd met just a few days before. Instead, he saw the honorable man Wesley Bates would one day become.

"Taylor did it," he said proudly. "She really did."

TAYLOR TRIED TO run, but Douglas grabbed her before she could get too far. "You're a little brat, you know that?"

They were in the meadow outside the Tinman's cabin.

"Do you know what you've done?" Douglas yelled as he grabbed Taylor by her shoulders. When she didn't answer, it infuriated Douglas so much that he began to shake her violently. "What? No smart-mouth jokes to tell? I should just leave you behind. We'll see how funny you are then!"

"Dad?"

Taylor whimpered as he jerked her back and forth.

"Dad!"

Douglas finally looked away and saw his son was frightened. He turned to glare at Taylor a little longer then shook her one last time before letting go.

"You love this girl as much as I do, huh?"

Everyone turned to see who belonged to the voice that was coming from inside the cabin. Taylor looked, too, but her eyes had narrowed to angry slits. She'd recognized the voice immediately.

Hope strutted through the cabin's door and into the meadow. "I was hoping you would have learned to be a bit more respectful while out in the world on your own."

"What... what are you doing here?" Taylor asked.

"Guess not, though."

"Where's Wesley?"

"Poor kid went looking for you."

Taylor stormed past her into the cabin. Hope waited patiently for Taylor to reappear once she'd seen no one was waiting inside.

"I told him you weren't worth it," Hope smirked.

"What did you do to him?"

"I tried to stop him. But he was just so angry that you had lied to him."

"I didn't lie to him," Taylor snapped.

"Yeah, you did. And just think, that's probably the last thing he's gonna remember about you. Isn't that sweet?"

Taylor gritted her teeth, fuming. Then, all at once, she lunged toward Hope, ready to claw her eyes out.

"Whoa!" Hope exclaimed. She backpedaled away until Bones stepped in and stopped Tay with ease. She kept reaching for Hope, though, kicking and screaming as the hooded man held her back.

"You freakin witch! You were lying to us the whole time! You're gonna lecture me! I swear, if something happens to him—"

"You'll what?" Hope sneered.

Taylor let her cold stare linger on Hope before finally looking away when her emotions got the best of her. Her fury was real, but as it often does, anger gave way to the heartbreak and desperation she was now feeling. Tears were on their way.
 

Hope stepped toward Douglas. "You sure you want to take her with us?"

"Tell me you've got good news," he said.

Douglas watched as Hope unfastened the top two buttons on her blouse to reveal Wesley's amulet hanging around her neck.

"Look at that," he said. "We match." He pushed his shirt collar aside to show Hope that he had an amulet hanging around his neck, too. It was similar to hers, only its markings were different.

Douglas kissed her gently on the lips. Color flushed Hope's cheeks, and she bashfully looked away. "Come on," he said. "Let me show you how these things work."

Douglas took Hope's hand and the two walked into the cabin. He looked back before disappearing inside. "Keep an eye on her."

Taylor pulled away from Bones angrily and moved to join Randy a few feet away. "How can you just stand there?" she asked. When he didn't answer, Tay let her gaze drift into the meadow. The grass was still dead, the flowers wilted. The trees in the distance were bare. The yellow brick road was gone. Everything looked exactly as it had when they'd arrived. Nothing had changed. Killing the Witch hadn't worked. They'd gone through all this for nothing. Her life in Astoria would be the same nightmare she'd left behind – only now, Wesley was gone.
 

Her eyes welled with tears. She wanted to run off. Maybe this time she could get away. Maybe this time they'd just let her. She had no idea where she would go – only that she wanted to be all alone when she got there.

But then, her gaze locked on something in the distance.

There was a single pink rose growing in the spot where she and her mother had met their demise in Taylor's bad dream, one stroke of color on an otherwise drab canvas.

"Look," Randy said, pointing into the cabin. "We're going home." Behind them the cabin had filled with the incredible light they'd all learned to associate with the portal that led into the real world.

Randy and Bones started toward the cabin. When Taylor didn't move, Bones took her by the hand and yanked her along with him. Tears were streaming down her face. She had no idea what Douglas would eventually do with her. The truth was, she didn't care. Instead, she looked back into the meadow as Bones pulled her along, praying tears hadn't clouded her vision and filled her with false hope.

She blinked hard and looked once more toward the spot where her mother had fallen. Only now there wasn't a single flower growing in the meadow like she thought...

There were three.

WESLEY AND THE librarian found the Scarecrow waiting for them at the bottom of the castle staircase.
 

"The Tinman's gone to find the Lion," he said.

"Good," Wesley answered.

"The villagers want to know what we should do with the captured guards."

"Let them go," Wesley said solemnly. "They were slaves, too. They weren't fighting us because they wanted to. The Witch would have killed them if they didn't follow her orders."

The Scarecrow glanced up the stairwell, confused when he saw that the librarian was the only one who had followed Wesley down. "Where's Taylor?" he asked.

Wesley frowned, shaking his head.

"Oh."

The Scarecrow turned, shoulders slumped as he padded away.

"We'll get her back," the librarian said. Wesley nodded silently then started to walk away. The old man followed. "I take it you two came back to correct the changes you made?"

"Did one heck of a job, huh?"

"I think you did better than you know."

"I don't see how."

They started across the drawbridge. Outside, many of the villagers who'd helped him were now making friends with the guards they'd been fighting just moments before.

Nell was with her father and elbowed him when she saw Wesley standing on the bridge outside the castle gate. When he saw Wes standing there, covered in mud and cuts and bruises, a proud smile crept onto the man's face. He began to clap. The applause drew peculiar looks from those around him until they saw Wesley, too. A moment later, they were all clapping, giving Wesley a hero's welcome.

Embarrassed, Wesley gave an appreciative wave but looked away. He wanted them to stop. Now.

"See that?" the librarian asked. "They understand. The Witch is dead. Her slaves are freed. Things aren't exactly where they need to be, but the story seems to be heading in the right direction." Wesley nodded, but the librarian could see he wasn't convinced. "Did you bring the book I gave you?"

"Yeah," Wesley said.

"Give it to me, please."

Wesley took his backpack off though it did little to ease the burdensome weight on his shoulders. He slid the large, leather-bound book from the pack's main pouch and handed it over. The librarian began to smile as he flipped through its pages.

"What is it?" Wesley asked.

"See for yourself."

Wesley moved to the old man's side and peered over his shoulder and into the book. The words were swirling on the page, just as they'd done for Randy in the library. Wes watched with wonder as the letters melted away until they were nothing more than a black whirlpool of moving ink on the page.

"What's happening?"

"I told you," the librarian answered. "The story's begun to correct itself." He handed the book back to the Wesley. "Tell me, how did you find Dorothy's companions? Did you have to search far-and-wide for them, or did events unfold in a way that you just happened upon them?"

Wesley took a moment to think. "We found the Tinman first. We had a pretty good idea where to look for him. But then... well... I guess we got lucky."

"But it wasn't luck, Master Wesley!" The old man leaned on his staff for support. "Stories are living, breathing things. Like anything in nature, they can adapt. The
Oz
story wants to be fixed. It
needs
to be fixed. The story pushed you in the right direction, Wesley. I suspect things will shift in Oz again, and people will be much happier with the outcome this time."

Wesley looked up at the sky. The Tinman had told them stories about the first shift in Oz. It had not sounded like something he wanted to experience for himself.

"And who knows?" the librarian said. "Maybe the real world has a way of correcting itself, too. If you weren't here to help I'm not sure how I would have made it back myself. Tell me? Where is the metal bookmark that was in the book I gave to you?"

Wesley's heart sank. The librarian was rubbing the wound in his shoulder. He looked like he'd aged a decade in the days since Wesley met him, but his demeanor was upbeat and hopeful. The old man was convinced they'd only suffered a minor setback, but Wesley knew the truth. He didn't know what the librarian and Douglas Stanford were fighting over, but he knew the librarian had lost. Wesley didn't have the amulet. They were trapped in Oz. Wesley was going to break the old man's heart.

Dang, he was getting good at that.

EPILOGUE

MORNING LIGHT FILTERED through a dirty window into Captain Hook's quarters. The pirate was seated at his desk with his chin propped on both hands. His bloodshot eyes were fixed on the small device on the desk in front of him, the device some strange man from the real world had given him, the "button" as Hook had come to call it.

Smee sat in the corner, his cap pulled down over his eyes so his captain wouldn't see he was trying to sleep. It had been a long night, after all. Smee was beginning to think that even the brilliant Captain Hook wasn't smart enough to figure out how to use the button.

He was just about to nod off when Hook slammed a fist down on his desk and bellowed out in anger. Smee blubbered awake, his hat falling to the floor as he jumped to his feet.

"W-w-what is it, capt'n?"

"What do you think, Smee? It's always the same. I just don't know why I didn't see it before!" Hook pushed back on his chair and rose to his feet. "That man I met was working for Peter Pan! I'm sure of it! This is just another one of his elaborate pranks. Oh, Peter. Bad form. Such bad form, even for you and your wretched Lost Boys! This is a new low!"

The pirate started toward the door.

"What you fixin to do, capt'n?"

The pirate used his hook to point at the black device sitting on his desk. "What I should have done from the start, Smee. I'm going to fetch my mallet and crack that button as if it were one of my clocks."

"But, capt'n! We don't know what it is! What if—"

"It's nothing, Smee. It's absolutely—"

Hook stopped in the doorway when a strange melody began to play in the cabin behind him. He turned, looking back toward the desk. The music was coming from
inside
the strange device. It was still on his desk but had lit up and was vibrating strangely, dancing across the desktop with the peculiar tune.

"Capt'n?"

"Quiet, Smee!"

Hook crept toward his desk. Smee followed. When the music stopped, Hook did the same. Smee didn't, though. He plowed right into the captain, nearly knocking him over.

"You fool, Smee!"

"I'm sorry, capt'n." Both men started slowly toward the desk again. "What happened? Did it die?"